In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Goodwin analysed music videos and came up with key points as to what distinguishes music as a form. One of these points were that : "There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals". I encorporated this when making my music video making strong links between my lyrics and visuals. For example, when the lyrics ask: "If you've got leave then why can't I come along too?" the artist is shown on screen typing those words into a Facebook comment at the same time.
Music videos in modern society are used as an advertising medium for new music tracks released by artists. They’re used primarily to sell the image of the artist to the consumer rather than the actual music track itself. My music track I chose fell into the genre of popular music and so therefore I researched into the conventions of popular music videos. I found that popular music videos typically involved the artist/s lip syncing to the track whilst performing and/or portraying narrative elements of the song eluded in the lyrics. The edits were typically straight cut, fast edits in order to portray a sense of continuity and naturalism. In order to sell the image of the artist effectively a lot of close ups were usually used of the artist in order to show off their image to the consumer. The artist would be dressed in a way that would appeal and best sell their image to the target audience.
Typically in a music video involving a female artist they are either dressed or act provocatively in order to sell their image in the music video. It will appeal to the sexual side of men and women will idolise them as someone they want to look like. Therefore, they sell the image, and the music, to a mass audience. However, in my video as the artist is young and her target audience would be younger, teenage girls rather than the mass I choose to dress her in the video with a “girl next door” look. She is dressed down in just jeans and a plain white top. However, her hair is up and she is wearing makeup which still allows her to be seen as beautiful and someone girls will idolise.
The fact she still wears makeup will still allow her sexual side to appeal to the male audience and in my ancillary texts she is dressed slightly more provocatively to ensure the mass audience appeal is not cut completely.
My music video involves the artist miming to the track and she also acts out the situation in the lyrics therefore providing the video with the stereotypical half performance half narrative structure that is typical of popular music videos. When editing the video I chose to use straight cuts to aid with continuity and keep the video looking naturalistic. However, when the artist is sat under a tree waiting I used a dissolve between shots to show the passing of time otherwise the shots would have been too static.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
To accompany my music video I constructed two ancillary texts: a website homepage and a Digipak for an album release. My website was based around aiming at a younger, teenage audience and the colours and texts I used reflect this. Pink, baby blue and white are the main colours used and these are colours typically associated with younger, teenage girls. My Digipak played on the idea of associating the artist with nature and the colour white to portray her as pure an innocent whilst still incorporating the same font and style of images as the website so that the two could be clearly linked by a consumer.
When creating my website I wanted to stay as close to the norm as I could. This website was for a mainstream, pop artist, not for an underground alternative band. Therefore, like the popular genre it had to appeal to the mainstream and be easy to use and clear to navigate around. Typically, as I found out in my website research, mainstream websites for popular female artists have on their homepage: an image, usually provocative, of the artist, tour dates, an opportunity to buy merchandise and some sort of main navigation bar. I have managed to incorporate all of these into my homepage although the image of my artist is less provocative because her target audience is younger, teenage girls rather than young males. When taking the image I asked my artist to look directly at the camera because this makes the consumer feel more involved and therefore sells the image of the artist better.
Following on from my website I created the digipak for an album release. The font is consistent from the website and the artist is wearing the same outfit. Therefore, the consumer can make connections between the two media texts and easily recognise it as the same artist. After researching into album covers in the research task I knew when making my digipak that the use of images of the artist was particularly important. All the mainstream, pop artist, female album covers I had analysed consistently used close up images of the artist and images that made the consumer feel involved e.g. the artist looking at the camera. Therefore I used an image of my artist on every panel except one in order to sell the image of the star.
In terms of matching my main product my ancillary texts match in artist only. In the video she wears a different costume to match the mood and genre of the song. However, I feel this is not relevant as the consumer would be able to recognise the artist and it is more important that the website and digipak match up as these are the static texts that would not be replaced regularly: artists make new music videos with different looks all the time for new singles.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In order to evaluate my work effectively I needed to gain an outside party view. As a class we showcased our videos and then e-mailed each other feedback, at least one positive and one improvement. In order to get feedback on my ancillary texts I had both up on the screen for the class to view, they then fed back and I wrote in Microsoft Word what they commented on.
My website received a positive response about how its layout and colour scheme made the page easy to use and suited the target audience well. I purposely made the layout uncluttered and easy to use as these are the main things that if not done well put people off using a website and returning. Therefore, in order to create a successful page that not only sold the artist but also products it had to be easy to navigate around and use pages. For my colour scheme I picked pink, white and baby blue because these are stereotypically “girly” colours and would play on bringing out the “girly” side of the artist. I could have picked darker colours and played on the mysterious and sexual side of the artist. However, I felt this would appeal more to the sexual audience of males which was not my target audience and also that this colour scheme would not match the ballad style of the song I had chosen. My feedback for improvements for my website homepage included using more images. I agree and if I were to improve the website further I would put more content in the middle frame, most probably including a montage/slide show of pictures. The improvements also included linking up the social networking links on the right hand side which I also agree with and were the website to be real and live these links would be linked to Jodie Jones’ real social networking pages. Furthermore, I had one comment on the approximate inch of white space at the bottom of my main webpage framing. This was unintentional and not noticeable in Adobe Dreamweaver when editing. However, it was suggested that I filled such a gap with a copyright claim and I agree with this, thinking it would work effectively to hide the bug.
My digipak received positive comments about the images used – particularly the background images. Although I did have one comment that the artist looked superimpose and too in focus compared to the background this was intentional and I personally like the effect it gives along with most people who gave feedback. I was also praised for the original way that the song titles are laid out on the back panel of my digipak: non-conventionally and creatively. As the font looked slightly like handwriting I purposely did not lay the song titles out conventionally so that it gave the audience the impression that the artist had written them herself and so therefore they felt they could relate to her and were closer with her than just a consumer. However, with the image of the artist on the back I had several comments that it needed re-proportioning in order for it to look less flat and more realistic. Furthermore, I had one comment that you could not see the rest of her body, including her feet which made the image look slightly un-naturalistic. I agree with this but personally found it very difficult to take a picture of the artist which incorporated her feet yet did not make it look like she had ears.
Finally, my video received a fairly positive response overall, especially about the lip syncing, storyline matching the lyrics and the screwed up paper stop motion sequences.
When shooting the video I had my actress to actually sing to the song to make the lip syncing easier and more convincing. When storyboarding my ideas, after receiving my audience questionnaire results which made it clear that the audience wanted a mix of performance and storyline in a video, I tried to plan a storyline closely related to the visuals. This meant audience understanding was easy, there were no questions to answer it was all told in the lyrics what was happening. Also, the situation the lyrics describe I felt is one a lot of young, teenage girls would be able to relate to and so therefore in making my video based around that situation they would be able to relate to the video and again feel closer to the artist because they are led to believe that the artist has been in that situation as well and can empathize with them.
The main criticism I received was that the ending shots lacked quality and were too dark. I agree with this and although the tapes provided by college made all shots slightly grainy, when I had to lighten the shots artificially when editing this did not aid the quality. It was due to bad planning that the end sequence could not be re-filmed and was I to do the project again realistic planning of time would be my main priority as when I set out to do start this project I did not comprehend just how long it would take to get the right shots I needed.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The course specified that we had to have permission to use the track we wanted to use in our music video and that the music track could not already have a music video for it. Without the internet and e-mail this would have been a lengthy process of writing to bands/artists individually and asking for permission with many hours spent writing letters and waiting for replies. However, with use of the internet research into the artist, whether they are signed and who you have to ask for permission is relatively easy and can take minutes if you know how to use a search engine. An e-mail can then be sent and is received by the recipient’s inbox instantly. Therefore, the process of finding a track and gaining permission to use it.
When analysing music videos modern technology, again, made it far easier to carry out this task. Before YouTube and other such video sharing sites were around on the internet music videos had to be watched on television. Therefore, when trying to analyse a particular video this task would have been made much more lengthy and harder to choose which video to analyse. When using YouTube there is choice of which music video you want to watch and analyse, the opportunity to pause it and re-watch it as many times as you wish. If watched on the television, short of sitting watching music channels all day you would be stuck analysing whichever music videos came on first and the only way to view them again would be to tape them.
For the planning of my project new media technologies did not benefit me so much in the construction as most was either drawn by hand or just typed text (therefore it could have been handwritten). However, using Blogger to present my planning allowed me to incorporate many images and my audio file which would not have been possible easily if present my work in a paper folder. Presenting it on Blogger also meant any changes could be dealt with quickly and easily rather then re-writing whole pages of handwritten text or re-taking photographs and waiting for them to develop.
When filming for the construction of my video I used a Sony Mini DV camera. By using a mini dv camera I made the process easier for myself because you can just plug the camera straight into the computer via a firewire cable and capture rather than having to use the tape in a special capturing machine. Using a digital camera also allowed me to use the digital screen attached to the camera to frame my subjects better and obtain better quality shots.
Once uploaded to the computer, editing consisted of using one program: Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. This program let me add audio, cut audio from the original shots, add special effects and titles if I so wished. Before modern editing suites were available the special effects would have either had to be added by hand or using separate programs which is both time consuming and difficult. Modern technology eased my editing process and allowed me to come out with a much more professional looking product without needing as much experience.
When finished my video had to be exported in order to allow me to upload it to YouTube and onto DVD. Whereas before YouTube and DVDs I would have had to have sent a tape to the moderator or had them come in internally to view my product these new digital methods of sharing media allow me to do it cheaply and easily.
When websites were first introduced there were all written in HTML by experienced web designers. They were difficult to create without thorough background knowledge of HTML and did not work particularly well. With the introduction of CSS and JavaScript many websites became more interactive, easier to use and generally just worked better. Although, without the prior knowledge of the coding involved were still pretty hard to make for yourself. Modern programs such as Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 allow you to create a website in a “what you see is what you get” style. In recent years these programs have become very popular with those who do not have extensive knowledge of coding, or perhaps none at all. Although I have limited knowledge of HTML and CSS, Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 allowed me to create a website much more simply and quicker. I was able to see what the website would look like without previewing it constantly and the program automatically wrote the code for me when I inserted an image, text or changed the background colour for example. The whole website was written for me when I visually created it and so therefore this program was a great help in creating me website.
My digipak again was massively aided by the advance in technology. I used Corel Paint Shop Pro 9 to manipulate my images and Adobe Fireworks CS4 to construct the main panels. Once obtained the sizes of the digipak I set about creating the panels in Adobe Fireworks CS4. When planning I had stated that I wanted images of my artist over a natural background of grass, I decided this would be easiest done by taking pictures of her against a green screen and then super-imposing her onto another image using Corel Paint Shop Pro 9. Again, whereas before image manipulation was difficult and a lengthy process image manipulation software now allows you to do super impose one image on top of another effectively and relatively easily. After taking my images with a digital SLR camera I uploaded them to the computer. Corel Paint Shop Pro 9 allowed me to use a tool to find the edges of my artist and cut her out easily from the background.
I then loaded some pictures of grass I had taken, also digitally, earlier, and simply pasted her on top. When creating my panels, due to my past experience with the program, Adobe Fireworks CS4 meant that I could add many special effects (such as shadows and bevels) quickly and effectively. Being able to save and edit multiple versions easily in order to compare them was also a great advantage when using modern technology whereas before they would have been drawn by hand and it would have taken a long time to get multiple copies.
Initially my evaluation was written in Microsoft Word which allowed for easy transfer between computers via e-mail and memory stick and also allowed spelling and grammar mistakes to be found and corrected easily and quickly. Compared with writing out the bulk of the text by hand, checking spelling in a dictionary and having to re-write it every time you re-drafted which is a lengthy process. When transferred over to my blog, to back up my points and to further explain my points to the moderator Blogger allowed me to insert media to my evaluation which, if handing the evaluation on paper in a folder, would not have been possible.
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