Evaluation

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For the audience feedback, after talking to family and friends I came to the conclusion that if I were to release this video I would have it shown on television and on Internet sites such as YouTube, as these were the two favorite ways to watch music videos. Also, the genre of ‘Pop’ is seen as very commercialised, bright and lively, which relates back to my music videos concept. The majority of people I spoke to suggested a music video that would meet the guidelines of a ‘Pop’ music video, but which is also unique to my tastes. I also done a poll question on 'Facebook' asking 'Do you watch music videos for...?' with the possible answers of 'Visual Aspect', 'Song', 'Artist', or 'All Above'. I Found people voted 'All Above' more than others. Around 20 'Facebook' users done the poll. 

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

In the entire production of producing the whole media products, I used a variety of media technologies in the construction, planning and evaluation stages. For planning the media product, I blogged all the pre-production information such as ideas, costumes, make-up, story production and behind the scenes. I found this successful and easy to help maintain the production as I arranged the order in how the shooting happened and what exactly needed to be done. On the blog, I posted pictures and videos from behind the scenes and actual production processes. This is to show what happens on the other side of the cameras as the audience only see the finished product. I researched other ‘Pop’ artist music videos to see what audiences they have and  also get an idea of what I am in production with and similar music videos that I could get inspiration from.  With planning the media product, I drew a storyboard and scanned it through to my computer so I could show the audience a rough of what the finalised media product could look like. Although I didn’t entirely stick to the storyboard due to coming up with more ideas during the filming production that I thought would relate more and be successful. With the construction of the media product, I used a Apple programme on an iMac, iMovie, which was very successful and easy to use due to past experiences with editing a YouTube series ‘The Way We Are’.  I did however, while editing, change the contrast and situation of certain clips due to it having more excited and  look more of the genre of ‘Pop’.  This was a very straight forward change and easy to do. When editing the ancillary tasks, I used an downloaded picture editor I have on my computer to add the effects and over lay images and then I used an Internet online photo editor named ‘Picnik’ to add the fonts. This was a very successful process and easy to do after having past experiences with editing images. With evaluating this whole media production, I used Blogspot again with all my past posts about the ideas, construction and production.

 

Evaluation

How effective is the combination of your main product

and ancillary texts?

When filming my media product, I took pictures along the way as I thought they could be used for the ancillary tasks to help having to re-invent the scene after the filming process. I found this a complete success and was extremely happy with the final results. I used a editing software for the ancillary tasks where I faded the pictures I took with glitter pictures I found online and edited them in a way so it look professional and appropriate and also for them to relate to the theme of the music video I produced. The ancillary tasks compared to other ‘Pop’ artists CD covers, are similar in a way; the artists on the cover and possibly on the back with the track list. An example of a similar CD cover is ‘Lady Gaga’ first debut album ‘The Fame’; a close of her face on the cover and a long shot of her on the back next to the track list. I wanted my CD cover to still keep the correct forms and conventions for a ‘Pop’ artist cover but use colours and images that would catch the audiences attention and make them pick up the album. With the other ancillary task, a poster for a magazine advert, I chose to use an image with colours that would catch the audiences attention and use effects by adding in other images of glitter layering the main image to give it an ‘Pop’ affect and still combining with my main product of my music video.  I found this very successful with how the combining with the music video and the ancillary tasks are. If an audience member saw the album cover and the music video, they would know that they are related. I managed to do this by using the back cover image that was scene during the media product so that the audience can see the combination and the positive personality of the artist. Overall, I am happy with the outcome of the ancillary tasks and how the combine with the finished media product.

 

 

Evaluation

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

My media product, consists of developing rather than challenging the forms and conventions of real media product. I chose a song which falls into the genre of ‘Pop’ which helped myself come up with a vast amount of ideas which are similar but also different to other ‘Pop’ videos that are currently available. ‘Pop’ music videos nowadays tend to focus on the specific artist and there story which mostly consists of a party scene, a boy and girl who tend to meet and form a relationship and having a happy ending or half naked people dancing around with a short story.  With a variety of ‘Pop’ music videos to research on and analysis, I came to the conclusion that I would follow the rules of a ‘Pop’ video but change some conventions and have a story with an actual serious meaning. The forms and convention to any other music videos are; to show the audience the artist who represents the music video, show the audience the personality of the video, portray the track in a visual way, represent the artist in a way that the audience can relate to and feel positive about and lastly, to represent the genre of the track. In most music videos, the aim is to clearly follow these specific guidelines to ensure the video has met all the the targets and for it to fall into the correct genre. If an artist challenges these forms and conventions, it can cause a lot of controversy and could possible ruin their career. 

Ke$ha - Tik Tok

Lady Gaga - Just Dance

‘Pop’ is a genre that can be portrayed in a simplified way but also has to follow the guidelines for a successful video. ‘Pop’ stands for Pop Culture which simplifies what’s popular in the current charts. In preparation to make my own music video for this genre, I researched popular ‘Pop’ artist music videos such as ‘Ke$ha - Tik Tok’’ and ‘Lady Gaga - Just Dance’. I chose these songs as I found they follow the guidelines for a successful music video and specific portray the artist as well as the surroundings and other happenings in the video. The song I chose to shoot the music video is ‘We R Who We R’ by the American artist ‘Ke$ha’ who is a ‘Pop’ genre artist who’s music videos consists of a lot of party scenes and glitter. I chose this song as I felt I could use a storyline which relates a lot to the song but isn’t actually portrayed through the lyrics of the song apart from the title of it. It was important to chose the right ‘Pop’ song which could follow the correct forms and conventions as well as taking a bit of a challenge to show the skills from media I have learnt.

The narrative of the music video I decided to use came from the title of the song ‘We R Who We R’ and having a true meaning behind it rather than just having the typical story for a ‘Pop’ music video. From my imagination, it a short while to brainstorm and come up with the final decision of the story and having it as ‘Pop’ as it could get and making it original rather than just exactly copying other music videos. The narrative focuses and a teenage boy who is kidnapped by a woman who was been following him and turns him into a puppet where she controls his movements. There are movements where the boy is on a bed surrounded by mostly female company looking at him and trying to change the way he is so he can become what everyone expects of him. The narrative continues of the actual meaning behind everything, the walls covered in magazines shows that the media in particular are always constantly telling the audiences what they should wear, what hairstyle to have, what make-up to wear and how they should be in order for the rest of the public to respect and accept them. The boy as the puppet is trying to be brainwashed but is fighting back and eventually wakes up in a room just thinking it was a heavy night out and was a dream. As it was not clear in the video, as the boy was fighting off to much and not allowing anyone to change him, he was let go but made not to remember anything. Also I added dance scenes in the video to stick with guidelines of a ‘Pop’ music video and to also give it more excitement. I came up with this narrative as the media nowadays are getting ridiculous on the perception on how the public should be and what they should do. I therefore think this wrong, so I chose to try this out without it looking too commercial and as well of portraying the genre of ‘Pop’. 

When evaluating my media product, I looked back to see if I had kept to the guidelines for a ‘Pop’ music video and also challenged it in a way to make it different and stand out from the rest. I had kept to the majority of the guidelines as I did show the audience the artist of the music video, show the personality through the visual aspect and playing around with it also to give excitement, show the track in a visual way to help the audience understand the meaning behind the lyrics and show the genre of the song. What I didn’t do so well was represent the artist in a positive way so much as there is a clear shot of the artist drinking out of bottle with consumed alcohol and for this video to be able to be seen by all age ranges, this specific scene should of been changed. I did not put it a party scene so much, It was a dance sequence with around 5-8 dancers surrounding myself. The costumes for this music video were kept simply but bright colours to help stand them out in certain scenes. The make-up however was very different, a lot of glitter was used to make it look fun and have sequins on our faces and hairstyles to look a bit different than normal. 

A convention that I did stick with, was the editing process of the music video as it was quick, sharp and snappy. The editing fits well with the music and cuts a lot to different scenes to keep it exciting. The editing process was a success and with the finalised piece, it looked like a professional ‘Pop’ music video. The programme used for the editing of the music video was ‘iMovie’ on a ‘Apple’ ‘iMac’ computer. With this software, it was easy to edit and simple to change and cut clips to a certain extend to help make the music video look appropriate for its theme. 

With the camera conventional shots, I chose to use simple shots with show the artist and extras so it can show the audience what happens are appearing the help the story unfold. I took shots of just the artist as I felt it was important for the audience to get to know and feel the personality of the artist, as well as figuring out the story.

Extra CD Cover (Inlay)

I chose to edit and finalise a CD inlay which goes inside the CD. I done this for extra work as I wanted to put it into the album case. I found it successful and quick. I used one of the CD Cover images and added a quotation on it which is something I would say about myself. I added a sticker of kiss lips as the album is called Kiss 'n' Tell and thought it was a nice little extra.

Back Cover and CD Spine.

For the back cover,  I made up my own tracklist. I done this as the theme of the album was my life in the past 2 years and I wanted to play around with the tracklist and make them fun and kind of a joke towards my past. I done 2 edits before choosing the final one.

FINAL CD BACK COVER 

For the CD spine, I only did one design and it was the final one due to it being such a small item for the CD album. I found this successful as it looks professional and is how other album CD spines are but as well as it being unique.

Edit

FINAL EDIT WITH LOGO.

Final CD Cover.

I chose this cover as I felt it was the most successful and fitted into the guidlines of the correct 'Pop' genre artist album cover. I chose to make it special edition as when editing the CD back cover, I wanted more songs that would normally on a first 'Pop' album.

CD Cover Edits.

For the CD Cover, I chose to call the album 'Kiss 'n' Tell' and has based it around the past 2 years of my life. I chose this as I wanted the album to have a meaning and I thought to base it around myself as I am the artist for the album. 'Kiss 'n' Tell' came from the idea of 'Ke$ha' as on her first debut album 'Animal', she has an track called 'Kiss 'n' Tell' and I very much liked it, so I thought about it and how I could incorparate it with the meaning on my album and then I found the connection with my past.
I editied around 7 album covers to choose from and then posted them on Facebook to see what people would like. The responses were all mixed and still made it difficult to decide. I then looked at them all very carefully and researched other 'Pop' artists covers.