DVD Commentary

Evaluation

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

We used several forms and conventions to help us with our music video. The first was the Destiny’s Child Video ‘Girl’ which really led to the inspiration of our music video. When watching the video we found that a lot of the same elements that where in the Destiny’s Child video matched what we wanted our own video to look like, this included the narrative, genre and style. The target audience was also very close to ours. We really like the idea of friendship and that no matter what happens you can always talk to your girls about it, this became key in our music video. Once we settled on a base narrative we went on youtube to look at more music videos to pick up any research about that sort of genre that would be helpful to us in making ours. We found that with a female solo artist a lot of close-ups and main focuses where of her, the camera was pretty much always on her so that was really key to us, we took that in and made sure that when we shot ours we would shoot close-ups and keep the artist as the main focus. We also found that they all had some sort of narrative to them, which again included the main artist, not someone else, so we followed down that road also. The genre of our music was very pop solo artist, with the whole telling your feelings through song type of thing then in the end everything working out, we played with this in our narrative stage trying to really capture the true meaning of the song and genre. The pace of the song was fairly slow, which is normal for a love song so we made sure the cuts of our edit fitted in time with the music, getting faster snaps when the music sped up when she hit her long note in the song. Over all I think other conventions really helped us achieve a piece of work that would fit right in with other music videos that carried the same genre, I also think we wouldn’t have gotten as many close-ups in if we hadn’t of watch music videos over and over.

How effective is the combination of your main product & Ancillary texts?

We knew from working on our music video we wanted to keep the same theme though out the work, so we looked at female solo artists album covers to figure out what sort of shot we would most likely use for out digi pack. After looking at that we decided to have a close up shot of Keke J on the front of the Digi pack in black and white, this still in keeps with the same style we used in the music video, keeping it the same genre. We wanted to show more of an artistic creative style for the front cover so we looked at different fonts than the normal ones to make the cover stand out and be different. When doing the photo shoot we took a range of different shots so we would have a range to choose from. This worked out really well because we actually had done a photo shoot before starting work on the Digi pack and when we decided to go for one those photo’s as the cover we then used the others to make up an artist booklet with signed photos of the artist that would be included in our Digi pack. The poster was a great way to advertise to the target audience what would be included in the Digi pack, it also gave an online option to find out more about the artist. The poster makes the artist look fun and popular, the font on the poster really makes it stand out and would grab a lot of people’s eyes. I think that all three products work really well together and they all link to each other, which sort of makes them a package. I really thought we caught the mood and genre of the whole image of the artist. The songs we put on the back of the Digi pack where all songs from the artist Keke J, which helped add to the genre because they all had the same theme in common. We added more promotions on the three products to get more people to buy them, for example we said that the first 200 copies that where sold would get a free pair of Keke J limited addition head phones and we included a bonus track featuring Drake another popular music artist. This was advertised on the poster and the Digi Pack.

What have you learnt from the audience feedback?

 

The audience feed back we where really keen to hear because we wanted to know if we where heading down the right direction or not, it also gave us a chance to watch the music video we had so far and see if we could spot any mistakes or changes we than needed to make note on and change. Over all it was all really good the video wasn’t quite finished when we showed it for feedback so of course there was some confusion on where the narrative was going. The comments we got from the video where over all good, they really liked the style and genre of the music and they thought we matched the tow up nicely. They said that the lip sync was really in time and they really liked the performance given in the video. Comments where made about the pace of the edit being to quick for the pace of the song which we took on board and after seeing it our selves we agreed with this comment and went back and changed it. Another comment made was about out narrative and where it was going, even after explaining it they still thought it needed more. We did consider putting more elements in the narrative maybe adding a male into the story but in the end we where running out of time for filming so we thought instead of rushing it we would stick to our original plan and make sure the shots worked together. This turned in our favour because everyone preferred what we did rather than the other idea we tried to add in, they said when it was finished it worked a lot more than they thought it would have. Over all the positives outweighed the negatives we got which we where really pleased with. A small comment was made about out locations and if we had planned for any more, they said it would have look more effective if we had one more location but we where pleased with the locations we chose, we already had four locations so we where happy with our music video location wise but still took the criticism on.          

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

Blogger was key for when we where planning out everything. It really helped us manage our time and helped us organise filming time and photo shoots. It also gave us a place to keep all our ideas in one place and it was easy then to reflect on the ideas we had and ether make them better or add and develop them. Blogger I would say helped us the most as planning was very important to this task and I don’t think we would have achieved to the same standards as we did. Final cut express was a really in detail software which help us get snappy shots more effective and made it fairly easy for us to sync up the lyrics to the miming in the performance. I was really happy with the software and found it easy to operate around. I played around with some of the tools at first so I could get a feel of what I could use then when I was editing the video I found it easy to get the intended effect on the video. I really liked how our video turned out and I think the editing and effects we put on it helped. We had a lot of comments on how the black and white wash looked really nice in the studio shoots, it separated the locations out and made it more clear I was in a studio. It also help separate the narrative to the performance to a certain content which then made it easy for the audience to follow. We used different software’s when it came to doing the Digi pack as we didn’t have photoshop on computers at home, but we did use the software when doing the front cover, we made the picture clearer and then edited the writing over the top of the cover. It was good we had access to these programs, as the advertisement of the product is just as important as the music video was, if hadn’t had these software’s the product wouldn’t have looked good as a whole.

Keke J Final Music Video R115

Front cover & Back cover

This is the front cover for our album slightly edited from the original with the album name printed on it at the bottom in white. the photo has been made clearer and sharper.

This will be the inside cover where the CD will be placed

This will be the design on the CD it's self

This is what the CD will look like inside the case over all

Photo booklet / posters

Promotional KeKe J Headphones

Final Album Cover

Final Poster advertisement



Our advertisement poster for our digi-pack  goes straight to the point with whats on our digi pack  which appeals to an audience. Knowing exactly what they will be getting for their money and in an easy and informative way. We have also included an oppinion a well know tv channel 'MTV' and also information for a facebook page where fans are ale to follow keke j and what she gets up into in the music world.

I chose a couple of different fonts that stood out and were different from the genreal ones like Arial and calibri. This was so it was unique from other posters and also attracts the audience and fits the style of our poster. I put them in different colors to make different sections to the advertisement so all the text is read.

First i made the photograph Black & white but then decided it was to predictable as our album cover image is lack & white. So i tinted the B&W to a more yellow color giving it more of a vintage edge to it.

Evaluation\

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

Our media product uses, develop and challenges forms and conventions of a real media product for a few reasons. Firtsly we have gained inspitation from other videos and artist on the market, we watched Destiny Childs music video for the song 'Girl.' After watching the video, it showed our group that we could do a similar narrative as it fits in with our genre of our chosen song 'Crush' by keke J, and also has the theme of love and lost in both the inspiration video and also our ideas for our music video. Our video contains a range of shots but focussing mainly on extreme and mid clos ups, a typical convention of a music video. Weused wuite alot of close ups to show off the artists strong emotion in the video fitting the facial expreesion with the lyrics of the song and advertising the artist themselves. Like most other videos, our product had a narrative showing the key points of the storyline and linking the lyrics of the song, to the imagery shown. The genre of our product is a female solo artist pitching her feelings or oppinions through her music. The pace of the footage and how it's been cut between the lyrics fits well with the video as it flows well with the speed of the music. For example our video uses slow cuts between each clip as our song is quite slow, however if it was a more upbeat song like rock the cuts be quick and snappy. Music videos similar to ours show close ups of the group/ Artist face throughout the video really connecting with the audience and showing them the style and what she wants the audience to be feeling. I also find that listening to songs puts you in moods depending on the genre.

2.   How effective is the combination of your main product & Ancillary texts?

From working on our music video and then starting our ancillary products, we had the same theme ideas throughtout.  For our Digi-pack front cover we used a close up of the artist showing her in a similar location to what she was in the video. We edited the photograph in Black & White the same as our studio footage. Using different fonts than the genreal ones, showing a more creative side to the production and an eye catching cover standing out to the target audience. I think our Magazine advertisement shows clearly to the reader whats included in the digi-pack package. It shows a way to find out more and to followe keke j online. I think the advertisement potrays the artist as being quite fun because of the brighter colours used on the poster and also showing her songs may be about love because of the lips image and her facial expression. I think all three of the products work well together as a promotion package because of their similarities and appeal to our audience. Our target audience of young female teenagers may like it because it's simple and the genre of love and boys. It would most likely appeal to them because when girls become teenagers they have alot more emotions and can relate to keke J and her song lyrics.

3.  What have you learnt from the audience feedback?

Overall i beleive our group has learnt quite alot from other people's feedback. When recieveing feedback we got both good and bad points. Most people thought that our performance, lip sync, shots and affects were really good. However some people thought that we could have included more locations, a wider range of close ups from different angles and that the narrative was unclear. When looking back at our rough cut we felt our main aim was to focus on adding alot my angles of shots between both performance an dthe narrative. we chose a song that was over four minutes long and when showinf our rought cut we had edited it up to one minute and people thought it wasnt going anywhere. So in order to stop this from happening in our final music video, we decided to cut it down to just over three minutes so people didnt get bored or confused about our narrative and also being able to introduce it alot quicker. When showing out final music video we found that the positives overtook the negatives. Many were the same as before and they liked the fact that we changed some parts to black & white and shortedned the fotage so it didn't drag. We found that the majority of people were pleased with what we had chnaged. However some poeple still thought there could have been more locations, but as a group we dedcided not too as we felt we had enough.our teacher also said that we just have involved a narrative of a guy however when watching the final product he thought that we made the decission not to also.

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

The blogger, photoshop and final cut were all important in helping us with our media products all in different ways. Having the blooger was great as we were able to write a plan for each lesson and writing aims along the way, also being able to show ourselves and others what our ideas and plan are for our music video. Photoshop was a help when we wanted to do editing, however we decided to use something different called Gimp to edit our products as we found it easier to use and more easy to work with. Having the advantage of being able to use HD video cameras, we were able to do clear shots without picelated footage. We also used a school SLR digital camera for our photoshoots for our ancillary products as we believe we were able to get a clearer and more professional look to the photograph.

Rhian's Evaluation Questions & Answers

1) There are several ways in which our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products. Our first piece of inspiration for our product came from the Destiny’s child music video for ‘Girl’ as we felt that the genre of this song, theme of the music video, and narrative were very similar to our product and the theme we wanted to convey which was feminine, and shows friendship and friends being there for each other. After researching music video on YouTube by other female artists, we noticed that music in our genre (R’n’B/pop)tend to have a lot of shots of the artist themselves with a lot of close-ups, so we made sure that we shot a range of different close-ups of our artist to use for our music video. As well as looking at a range of music videos for inspiration, we also done some research on Google images to get some ideas for costumes and props to use that would fit into our genre; we went for feminine, bright but simple costumes with simple jewellery like ear-rings, rings and necklaces. The narrative for our music video is quite typical to the lyrics of the song which is about a girl having a crush on a boy, so we produced a narrative to show our artist feeling down about this, and feeling lonely until her friends meet up with her and cheer her up.

2) The combination of our main product and ancillary texts is very effective as the combination of posters and photos gives a clearer insight to the artist’s personality which increases likeability. The cover of our digi-pak is a posed photo of the artist - we chose to have the artists face as the main feature for the front cover because research showed us that the majority of album covers for our genre of music had the artists face on the front cover. When first seeing the digi-pak, the front image may convey a typical image of a female artist - hair and make-up done and posing for the camera. The photo also shows confidence as it is a bold and striking, clear image in black and white with a very small amount of colour. However, the photo booklet on the inside of the digi-pak conveys the artist’s personality rather than her image as she poses for the photos. These photos are more playful and light-hearted to show her fun side. The target audience for our product is aimed at teenagers and young adults – it is suitable for a young audience as it does not contain any swear words. This product would be more attractive to a female based audience as the artist is female and singing about her crush, so other females are able to relate to her; this factor alone would help to attract the target audience. Younger females may be attracted to the product because they see the artist as someone they look up to and idolise. On the other hand, a male audience may also find the product appealing due to the attraction to the female artist – photos and posters would contribute to the attraction.

3) From feedback we received on our rough-cut of the music video, we used the negative feedback as constructive criticism to improve our music video. As the rough-cut was unfinished when viewed, some people said that they couldn’t see where our narrative was going which meant that we gave it quite a slow build up, however with fast-paced cuts and short shots it worked well for our video and balanced out the pace. In our unfinished rough-cut we were also advised that we needed more locations as there were only two different locations at the time, but our finished product had one other location that we had intended to introduce towards the end of our music video. We were pleased that the performance was complimented on and the audience liked that we used black and white effect for various clips of our video. There was positive feedback on the pace of our clips so we kept this consistent throughout, and we were happy to hear we had a good range of
footage as we were very sure to get more than enough footage to be able to choose from, and use what worked/looked best in our video.

4) In the planning of our music video, we used technology like a HD video camera to go out and film some test footage so that we got used to the camera and tripod, lighting and working one of our locations to the best of our ability. Having this specifically set time to make some test footage saved us from wasting our time when it came to filming footage that we would be using in our music video because we already knew the equipment and location. Bloggr was one of the main technologies that we used in the process of our planning as this is where we put our inspiration and ideas down and where we noted down what and how we had done things/what needed changing and what we wanted to try, so we could go straight to our blog to arrange what we would do next. For the production of our product we decided not to use Photoshop and used an alternative called ‘Gimp’ as the whole of my group seemed to have difficulty with using Photoshop for particular things that we wanted to create like certain effects of images and certain fonts, so instead of wasting our working time, we used a different programme. Final Cut was the main piece of technology in the creation of our video as this the programme that we used to make and edit our music video.

Screen grabs

Screen shots 'Destiny childs- girl music video'

This shot was chosen from the video as it gives the audience knowledge of the location for the video. we chose a cafe also for one of our narrative locations because this where we showed the feelings and emotions of keke j with her friends comforting her.

I took this snapshot from the video because its good close up of Beyonce singing with little spacearound her. This is similar to one of our shots as we used a similar shot but from the side on and had little space either side of the artist.

Even though its been edited i black and white i think it still looks similar and has the same effect on the video, it shows her facial expressions and a plain background.

Here you can see that they've shown the girl group hugging creating a theme of friendship and happiness.









In our music video we tried to show off the same atmosphere by having them all meeting up together for a drink and talking about the main girls crush.

We showed the girls individually saying hello but them becoming a group when they all sit down. We chose to shoot a medium long shot showing half their bodies so its not too far away and not visible in what was going on.

We chose these screen shots as we may use some of them for our commentary video to exaplain our answers. we chose takes from the cafe to show similar environment in our music video and showing close ups of Beyonce's face. We chose these particular ones as they have similarities to some of our shots showing the importance of close ups in a video. We will use some of these snapshots from the video to put over our commentary so whilst one of us is talking the audience will have more of an idea of what they are explaining.