Evaluation

At the start of the A2 media course we were informed that as part of the course we would be given a brief that would state the task we were to complete before the end of the year. There were 7 briefs to choose from and I chose the following: A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with the two of the following three options- a website homepage for the artist, a magazine advertisement for the digipak or a cover for its release as part of a digipak. The idea of making a music video really appealed to me as it gave me a chance to be creative and work hard as well as do something I knew I would enjoy. I thought from the start it may be quite a challenge but this was something I was willing to take on. The conventions of a music video were something that we learnt early on in the lesson so that we could become familiar with what to follow for our final piece. However I was already aware of how many music videos work and what to expect from them which meant it was easier for me as I could straight away go into picking my choice of music video. Also, from the 3 options I chose to do a website homepage for my artist as well as a magazine advertisement for the digipak. I chose to do a website homepage as I have had previous experience creating a website as part of my applied IT course and so I already knew the conventions of a website and had an idea of how construct one. I chose to do the magazine advertisement as I think this is something that is simple to make, yet it can look effective and work as a good promotional material. The conventions of a magazine advertisement were something that were easy to follow and so this made is easier as I knew what was expected of me in order to create a professional looking piece. After choosing the brief my job was to then start planning the type of video I wanted to make. This meant choosing a song I know I could create a good enough video for as well as getting to know the conventions of the particular genre. From the start I already knew what type of song I wanted to use. I thought that by doing a song that was fairly slow and not too upbeat meant that I could do my own interpretation of it in any way I like. I think that a slower song has more meaning through the lyrics and this is something I initially wanted to do. I chose to do the song 'The Writer' by the English singer/songwriter Ellie Goulding.

 Ellie Goulding is an artist that is most noticed for her unique style of songs that are usually categorised into the Folk/Indie genre. At first I thought that trying to take on a genre that isn't that well known would be quite tricky but after I conducted some research into the genre, I found that it wasn't that hard to interpret. Now that I had identified that the genre of my music video was Indie/Folk I decided to look at other existing music video that take on the same style. The genre 'Indie' implies that it is a different style that may not be recognised by the mainstream music as it is an alternative style of music that often includes bands that prefer much more creative freedom and tend to be on independent labels attracting niche audiences. It wasn't until the 1900s that 'folk' was introduced to indie and they began the new style 'Indie/Folk'. I have done my best to create a music video that reflects the indie/folk genre as this is something the song does. Researching the conventions of my music video genre was something that helped me to begin my initial planning preparation. It made me aware that this genre is one that has more of a calmness to it compared to genres such as 'rock' or 'RnB'. This gave me inspiration to have my music video tell a story as that would be something the audience would pick up on. Looking at music videos such as Colbie Caillats 'Realize' influenced me with the narrative being the main focus of the video. Not only did this video fit into the same genre as my chosen song but it represented the artist in a way which inspired me to do with mine. I wanted the artist to perform in my music video as they would be the central point for the audience and they are the purpose of the video. Conventionally the artist appears in the music video some way or another and this is something I wanted to follow. I was inspired by nature and landscapes and wanted to have this featured in my video as part of the mise en scene. Telling a story visually can sometimes be difficult to do if there are main attractions elsewhere so I decided that neutral and nature backgrounds are the best solution to keeping that simple and making the focus on the artist. Before I made any big decisions to what I was going to include in my video I decided to conduct some audience research that allowed me to find out what would work and what wouldn't for the audience. I needed to establish the demographic and psychographic profile of my audience as it allowed me to get a real sense of what particular audiences enjoy and don't enjoy as inspiration for my final piece. From this research I found that most people liked the idea of a music video that was a mixture of performance, narrative and abstract. This meant that I was able to come up with a wider range of ideas that allowed me to create a video that I knew would appear to the audience. From the research, I also decided that I was going to aim my music video at people between 13-25 as they are most probably going to be attracted to the artist I have chosen. This audience being more specifically females, as the artist is female and a female audience will feel like they have more in common with her.

Jessica the performer





I chose to use my cousin Jessica to appear as the fictional star 'AllieRoe'. She had the right look for what I wanted with vibrant red hair and pale skin. I got inspiration from artists such as Florence and the machine who also sports the vibrant hair and pale skin and is also seen as the same type of artist. Jessica is also a very confident girl that I knew would be willing to perform in my video and I could get reach of when I wanted because of the family connections. However there were a few problems when it came to the filming process which made me rethink about the choice I made, choosing her for the fitted role. But in the end she worked really well and was the perfect person for the job.

 

Florence and the machine

 Now that I had chosen my performer, I needed to come up with the key features that would make my music video. Some of these include the location, costume and prop list. At the time of deciding what I wanted in my video I created a storyboard that allowed me to piece together my first ideas of how I wanted my video to work. As I was going to have a mixture of narrative, performance and abstract, I first needed to come up with a story that would be possible to interpret visually. I decided on a narrative that followed a love story that was falling apart. I decided to play with the lyrics and thought about my artist writing a letter to the person she was in a relationship with, explaining how she felt and how it was falling apart.

The song tells a story of how a girl is not feeling good enough for her partner and so I decided to use this as the main narrative. I was going to feature my artist writing a letter then have extra scenes showing what she was writing about visually. I showed this idea on my storyboard and showed my planning using this idea. I also wanted to include a dog in my music video as the idea of having an animal comforting my artist showed how she was feeling and what she was missing. I wanted it to show the dog being the only affection she has , as if the dog is showing what she is missing. There wasn't a problem getting hold of the dog as I knew from the start I could use Jessica's dog, Lily. I also knew the locations I could get reach of meaning it was easier for me to go ahead with my planning and it wasn't time consuming trying to to find the perfect places. I chose to use an abandoned field located at the back of some houses. I chose to use it here as it created a look of the artist being in the middle of nowhere which is what I wanted. Near here was a woodland that was also abandoned which was perfect for using as not many people were aware of where it was. The fact these 2 locations were near each other made it easier as I didn't have to travel miles apart during the filming process. I also was planning to use the inside of my house for the scene were the artist is writing the letter which again was easy to get hold of. From my audience research most people said they would prefer the audience dressed in neutral coloured clothing. Initially this is what I wanted but when it came to filming, the realisation that she didn't have any neutral clothing occurred. This meant I had to change to casual but this want a major problem.

The first shoot I did worked well but there were a few complications. I placed my artist in the middle of the field as this is where I wanted her to be in the music video. The problem was trying to get the dog to run up the camera as this is what I wanted her to do. This meant the dog was distracting my performer from doing her best in the video which caused frustration. However just by leaving the camera focused on the dog I managed to capture the shot I wanted without meaning too and so the dog was an actual success. As this was the first time shooting with Jessica I didn't know how she would perform and was surprised by what I saw. She performed well and showed a good confident performance however at the beginning I wasn't aware she didn't know the lyrics. As there wasn't enough time for her to sit and learn the lyrics to the song whilst filming all the different shots and angles for my video, I had to hold up a sheet that had the lyrics written on it. This was a struggle for me as I couldn't properly concentrate on what I was filming and had to make sure she was saying the correct words so that she was later in sync in the video. Looking back on the footage that I filmed for this shoot it was clear she didn't know the words as she kept looking back to wear I placed the sheet with them on. This is the reason for the re-shoot. By the time I had chance to re-shoot this scene my performer knew the words to the song meaning it was much better for the both of us as she knew what she was doing and I could then concentrate on what I was shooting. I decided to experiment with the cinematography in the field scene as I wanted to shoot my performer from different angles.

This shows a mid shot of my performer in the field.

This shows a medium long shot in the field.

This is also a mid shot but the camera revolves around the artist.

This is a long shot of my performer in the field.  

This is a close up of the artists face. In the video this gradually gets closer and closer.



This is a close up of the artists face.


Also on the first shoot I filmed the scene were the artist writes the letter to her partner. Not only did I film the letter scene but I filmed numerous of different scenes including the artist in the bedroom and in the living room. When I was filming I knew that the lighting in the house wasn't very good and so I may have needed to re-shoot somewhere else. Because the lighting wasn't very good it made the quality of the video look worse than it already was. It was at this point that I decided that maybe changing my idea was an option as there were complications trying to get another house with better lighting and finding the time to go there.

 

 



These pictures are stills from my first shoot and show how bad the quality was. I had the option of re-shooting but in the end decided to change my idea instead, by cutting out any scenes inside the house. Because I filmed this scene quite early on it meant that I had time to change my idea and do more filming which was a benefit. I am thankful that I had the option of filming again as if I had left this to last minute I may not have had the time to re film and may have had to stick with this. I also decided to use a plain white wall as a location for my music video. This wall was easy to use as it was one of the outside walls in the college. The first time I shot the white wall background scene, I used a white wall inside of college. I could tell when I was filming that this may not have worked because the lighting here was also very bad. The wall outside was much better as the daylight made the wall a brighter white. A problem that occurred whilst filming was the weather. It was fairly windy when we filmed outside and so this caused disruption in my artist performance. Jess was constantly moving her hair out of her face as the wind was blowing it and this interrupted with the performance. However when in the stages of editing, I didn't have the chance to go back and re-shoot this as Jess didn't have the time to film. My only option was to use what I had already got and in the end it didn't turn out too bad as I edited around it. A big problem that occurred whilst in the process of creating my video was the shooting schedule. When I had arranged to film, my chosen performer would often clash her work timetable at the same time. This meant I wasn't able to film when planned and had to put it off for a later date. Along with this problem it meant that I often had to change my idea as I never knew what the weather would be like when I eventually had the opportunity to film. At one point the weather was really bad as a lot of snow arrived which meant I had to change my idea. I also planned to film during the time of it snowing which is why I changed it in the first place. However, again my performer chose to work instead of commit to filming. Eventually the snow cleared up which meant I could return to my initial ideas which was sort of a relief for me as I already knew what I wanted and the continuity wouldn't be too bad. Filming the woodland scene wasn't as easy as it should have been because of the weather the day I chose to film. At the time it was raining heavily so we had to improvise with costume. I decided to put my artist in a winter coat with a hood so that her performance wasn't effected too much from the rain. There were potential health and safety hazards when filming this scene due to the weather. As I was filming the sky and other high angles, it meant the camera was exposed to the rain which could have damaged it and prevented me from doing my work. I thought because of what the weather was like that day I may have had to re film but this wasn't the case as I actually managed to get some decent shots in my video.

This shows a long shot of my artist

Close up of the artists eyes.

Medium close up of the artist.

close up of the artist



High angle looking up to the sky to capture the trees. Shooting this could have caused damage to the camera as the weather was poor at the time.



My artist is represented as a 'young', 'calm', 'cool', 'good' role model for the audience. Through the use of mise en scene and costume I have made my artist look like the stereotypical young female as I feel that most people would most likely feel as if they can relate to her. Her hair is simply down with not much happening with it but I think this is something that works as the genre of music is more about the lyrics and song rather than what the artist looks like. By this I mean other genres such as RnB and Gothic rely much more on image in order to get across the right codes and conventions but this is something that doesn't necessarily have to be for this genre. I tried to be quite different with the costume choice even though I was originally going for neutral colours the casual clothing shows the artist being down to earth and genuine.

Many music videos today are conventional due to the nature of what is in them, this being performance and narrative scenes. I originally decided on having a narrative as well as a mix up of the other elements but I think this is something that it lacked due to me changing my ideas. All music videos are post modern as they borrow from other music videos as well as been parody's or pastiches from other media sources. For example an abstract video could be seen to be a pastiche of art due to the fact it usually requires interpretation of an individual in order to be understood. The same is with narrative videos that can be seen to be a pastiche of a film because of the storyline. Postmodern media relies on an active audience in order for the text to be understood. My initial research of existing music videos and the ancillary texts gave me inspiration and I even chose to include some of the same features in my music video. For example I used similar shots and mise en scene. This shows me being post modern with my music video as I am doing a pastiche of what Ive already seen. It could also be seen as intertextuality. My music video and other ancillary texts are all post modern as they are a pastiche of existing pieces. My music video is similar to the original video of 'The Writer' which is something some of my audience were able to pick up on. My ancillary texts are 'respectful parodies' as they include the same codes and conventions due to the genre being the same.

Strengths of my music video

• There is continuity throughout the video.
• The artist is represented in a good way.
• The genre can be identified by most of my audience.
• There is a range of shots throughout my video.
• I have used different modes of colour to make it more interesting eg. black and white tint
• I have taken good advantage of the editing software.
• It is mostly in sync, which is something that I didn't expect due to my artist not knowing all the lyrics at the beginning.
• The video matches the type of song meaning its not rushed, it has a calm, slow feeling like the song does.

Weaknesses of my music video

• From my audience feedback I found that some people thought the genre was pop which is not what I was aiming for.
• It sometimes looks repetitive as I have used the same shot more than once.
• Too many dissolves
• There is no narrative so the audience may find it hard to understand what the video is about.
• The video still includes some of the shots were the wind blows in the artists face so she is moving her hair out of the way which makes it look unprofessional.
• It could come across quite boring as it is a very simple video.
• The continuity may be lacked as the artist appears in the sunshine then in the rain.
• As I decided to not include a narrative the audience may not understand the purpose of the dog anymore.

I found that creating my ancillary texts was an easier job then the music video. This is because the codes and conventions are easier to get your head around as they don't rely too much on the genre. I researched a number of different websites in order to know what to expect to include in my final piece. Doing the research made it easier even though I was already familiar with some of the conventions. I found there are a variety of layouts for a website as some artists chose to have a homepage with just an image and menu bar and others chose to have videos, text as well as pictures and a menu bar. I chose to go for the trickier layout with more information on it as I liked the idea of putting more work into it. The first thing I had to consider when in the making of my website was the theme and house colours of my website. I knew I wanted to use one of my images as the background because I wanted to experiment with the picture. I chose to cut off half of Jess' face and lighten the picture in order to create a pale pink. I chose to use pink, black and yellow as the house colours as the pink and yellow are quite calming colours which reflect the folk genre and the black to reflect the indie side. I tried to make my website as conventional as possible including a menu bar with the conventional headings, videos, information for the fans and a direct twitter update. I also edited my website to make it look more professional by showing the website URL in the search bar. If I could go back and change anything about my website I would maybe not include the album cover on the front as I feel it takes up too much space. I would also maybe change the layout of the text and boxes.

Original photo

Edited photo

Strengths of my website

• Follows the conventions of a website as it includes some of the vital elements. Examples of these being the menu bar, the artists name/brand, the website URL etc.
• According to my feedback most people thought my website reflected the genre.
• It is suitable for the audience.
• It has a layout of an existing website.
• I have took advantage of photos in order to create a good background
• It includes real tweets from a real twitter account I made for my artist.
• It shows continuity as the headings on the website are all in the same font type and style.
• I made sure the font size was the same for some of the texts.

Weaknesses of my website

• The artist brand name could have been neater
• The twitter updates could have been smaller as it looks slightly cramped together
• I could have made the album cover smaller or not included it.
• Change the layout of the website so it doesn't look so cluttered
• I could have included more pictures of the artist if I had the space.
• Changed the font to make it more interesting
• Made everything slightly smaller
• Not had the text in the boxes as you cant see the background which could have looked nice if the audience were able to make out what it was. You cannot tell by looking at it that it is a picture of the artist.

Creating my magazine advertisement was slightly trickier than the website as I wasn't that familiar with the conventions. My research of existing texts showed me that there are also different layouts for magazine advertisements. Some of the conventions that were vital for me to follow included having the artists name placed some where were the audience could see it. Some people may already know of the artist and so when they see the name or even a picture of the artist they know who it is and are automatically engaged with the advertisement. Some magazine advertisements include photos of the artist and some included the actual digipak cover that they are trying to promote. I chose to produce a cover of a digipak so that I could use that to promote it. If the audience know what the album looks like then they are more likely going to want to buy it as they wont have a hard time trying to find it. The album cover is the first thing the audience see so it is important that this draws in the audience before they decide they want to listen to the music. My album cover could be seen to be unconventional of many album covers because I have chosen to use a photo of my artist with her eyes closed. However in my research I managed to find an existing album cover that showed the singer Rihanna with her eyes closed. Also the singer Adele who could be seen to be in a similar sort of genre as my artist, has her eyes closed on all of her albums she has released. Even though it may appear that the artist isn't connecting with the audience because she has her eyes closed, it could be an alternative way of drawing in the audience. By this I mean the audience may be intrigued by the fact the artist is choosing to not look at them directly. It could connote a hidden side to the artist that can only be found through the music which would make the audience by the album. This is the kind of message I wanted to get across to my audience and this is why I chose to use this particular picture. I decided to place the album cover directly in the middle of the advert as this is the first thing people will see. I also chose to include the words 'album out' as this is a convention of many advertisements. Its purpose is to inform the audience of when they can purchase the album and by having it in big, bold text does the job as they can easily see it as it will be one of the first things they will see. By using star ratings and quotes from popular sources on my advertisement it represents my artist in a good way by making her look successful it is also another conventional thing to do on an advertisement as this is something that will most likely appeal to an audience. People are most likely going to want to buy something that has a good reputation and this is what I wanted my advertisement to have.

Strengths of my magazine advertisement

• It follows conventions of a magazine advertisement according to my audience feedback
• 11 out of 12 people said it reflects the genre of the artist
• The use of colours work well together and are the same colours that are used on my website
• The things that will appeal to the audience are the things that are made bigger and bolder than everything else.
• It includes a 4 star rating that will be noticed by the audience.
• Popular sources have quoted showing the success of the album.
• Conventionally I have included the brand logo of the institution that will sell the album
• I have also included the website URL as an extra promotional technique.

Weaknesses of my magazine advertisement

• Looking at the music video then to this magazine advertisement you would think it was a different person this is something that could have maybe being changed
• The colours are maybe to dark and I could have made the black another colour
• I could have drawn the artist in more if I had chosen to use a picture of her with her eyes open.
• I could have changed the font type to make it more interesting
• It could be seen to be quite boring and simple.
• The font on the album cover could have been slightly neater.
• Maybe make the quote text slightly smaller.
• I could have maybe made the album cover a little bit smaller to have more room for the writing.

In order to create all 3 tasks to a decent standard, I had to make sure that I took advantage of all technological equipment available. The most important piece of equipment that I had to use was the HD  video camera. Without this it would have been impossible to film any footage meaning I wouldn't have a video to show at the end. The same problem would have occurred if I didn't have access to the digital cameras also. I needed to take a good selection of pictures so I could experiment with them for my website and magazine advertisement. If I didn't have the camera then I wouldn't have had any pictures of my artist. However the alternative option for this could have been to take photos on my phone but the quality wasn't any good so the pictures would have turned out fairly pixelated which would have taken away any chance of my website and advertisement looking professional. The rise of technology has allowed me to use these devices. I also had a number of programmes that contributed to the creation of my media texts. The main programme for my music video being the software Adobe Premier pro C3 that gave me chance to upload the footage I had captured and edit it into a music video. It was this programme that gave me all the effects that allowed me to put my video together so it looked fairly professional. I took advantage of the editing tools and used a number of cross dissolves, colour changes and zooms. Without the editing tools being there it would mean that my music video would have to be perfect from the minute I filmed it as I couldn't make changes or piece it together properly. It wasn't a hard programme to use which surprised me as I thought it would be fairly difficult. The fact it wasn't hard made it all the more easier for me to piece together a number of different edits. My first edit was done quite quick and this is because I found that the programme was easy to use and I already had an idea of what I wanted. There was still footage needed to be filmed at the time of my first edit which is why it is poorer than my final edit. My final video took longer to create but this is down to the fact I wanted to make sure it was the best I could do it. Whilst in the process of editing it I asked my teachers to give me advice on what was working and what wasn't. This was beneficial to me as it gave me the chance to change things early on giving me more time to perfect it at the end. I chose to use more effects than just straight cuts in my video as I wanted to get across the feel of the song. I think I did this well by using the dissolves so that each scene flowed. The website that helped me the most with my music video was you tube. You tube provided me with the chance to research other music videos as well purchase the song that I was using for my music video. Looking at existing music videos helped a lot as it gave me the opportunity to get a grasp of the conventions of the genre I had chosen to do. I found inspiration from other videos and it helped me piece together my own. You tube is a free site and so I took advantage of it as if it wasn't here there might have been a chance that I would have to pay on other websites. Other websites that helped me with my task were the actual existing websites of current artists. Again I was able to get familiar with the conventions which made it easier for me to create my website. I also used the website dafont.com that gave me my style of font for my artists brand name. This website gave me a range of different font styles to choose from to make my brand name look interesting and appealing to the audience. I also had to make sure it was the right font that didn't go against the genre. By this I mean if the text had chains hanging around it then it would most likely appeal to RnB or hip hop fans as chains and bling connote this genre. One of the most important programmes that benefited me with my tasks was Adobe photoshop CS5. This allowed me to edit my photos to a standard that looked professional. I also created both of my ancillary texts on this programme as it is the best one to use, with current professionals in the media industry using it often. It had the tools that allowed me to experiment with layouts, colours and effects to make my texts look the best they can. Without this programme I would have the choice of other programmes such as microsoft word and publisher but these don't have the same amount of tools as photoshop has and so the website and advertisement maybe wouldn't have looked as good. Blogger is the most important website of all as this is were I have presented all my work. It gave me the chance to showcase everything I have done to prepare for my 3 texts. It is easy to use and I had already had experience using it from the AS course so it wasn't hard to get used to. I think that blogger is a better way to present work as it means you can go back and edit it when you like and you don't lose any. You can also make it look quite presentable which already makes your work look better. A down fall to blogger would be the way the pictures are uploaded. Sometimes it is a challenge to get pictures where you want them and this can take time.

Looking back at my storyboard I can see a number things that have changed and stayed the same in my final music video. The main thing that has changed is the narrative that isn't included in my music video any more due to difficulties with filming. There are some similarities such as the opening of the video as well as the different shots of the artist and the dog. When I was filming I tried to stick to my storyboard but this didn't work and I think that it has worked out for the better. I would have liked to have had the chance to re film the letter scene as I think the video would have had much more of a point to it which the audience might have found more interesting.

After I had created all 3 tasks I conducted 12 questionnaires to gather some audience feedback. I asked a range of questions that would help me to understand and make me aware of how my video has being perceived by the audience and if it has done the job I wanted it to. Most people were able to identify my music video as being folk but some people said they thought it was pop. This shows one of my weaknesses as the video should have been made to show the correct genre and it effectively hasn't. However I appreciate that most people could identify it and so this suggests to me that it was still some what successful. All 12 people said they would say the audience my video attracts is people between the ages of 13-25. This shows that I have targeted my video at the right audience. The same results were shown with my ancillary texts as most people could identify the target audience as well as the genre. If I could change anything about my final pieces it would be to make sure the genre is clearer so all the audience can identify it.

Word count: 6076