In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For my media product we had to create a music video featuring our artist, a CD album booklet and an album magazine advert focusing a pond the indie- pop genre using marina and the diamonds as our inspiration.. I chose to work alongside three of my classmates Sam McMahon, Taylor Barnes and Sarah Smith. Together we all contributed into making this project effective by each sharing roles in the videoing of the footage and also producing photos for our ancillary task.
We used the programme Photoshop in order to create our CD album as well as using Final Cut Express to edit our music video. We also researched into our chosen themes etc by using programmes such as the internet and then producing our initial ideas onto the blog. I contributed by taking part within filming the footage for our video, being involved in the music video by participating as an extra and also editing various parts with the Final Cut. By using demographic profiling we targeted the audience to 16-25 years old both male and female. This is due to the fact that ‘Marina and the diamonds’ being an indie – pop artist give connotations of being young, energetic and care free. The artist herself appeals to a large audience particularly teenagers to young adults as it talks about her finding her way in life and becoming who she wants to be. The bands social economic group would be E meaning unskilled as it appeals to teenagers, as well as D relating to the working class.
For our music video we decided to follow the conventions of the genre indie – pop. The genre is most appealing to teenagers as it connects to them through the fun and energetic vibe their types of songs give off. The genre promotes the need of all teenagers to be young free and independent, being who they want to be.
When it comes to music videos, they are generally aimed at a teenage audience usually therefore telling a narrative to keep them interested within the song which will appeal to a wider audience. We decided to make our video similar by basing it upon a narrative focusing upon teenagers.
The two most influential videos we watched were Ellie Goulding 'Starry Eyed' and The Noisettes ‘Never forget you’ Both were all about having fun but we used them both for different alternate reasons. The Noisettes video gave us ideas on how to produce on own and what key features we’d need such as costume, props, attitude and setting etc. Whereas the Ellie Goulding video gave a feel of what we wanted ours to include a fun and energetic unique vibe.
Picture 1: This is a still image of the main artist out of the The Noisettes. The way in which she has her hair done making it stand out and become individual as well as holding the guitar instruments, shows the connatations of indie - pop as their always focused upon their instruments and unique styles.
Picture 2: This image shows us how the mise en scene is used to reflect uniqueness within the video. Here special effects have been chosen to create an atmosphere amongst the audience which is what we wanted in our video, something that was unique as well as using typical connatations of indie - pop.
Picture 3: This is the image we chose to place on our album poster. This image shows the personality of the artist as more of a laid back fun image rather than a serious one. We can see this from the use of bright colours used for the costume as well as bright lighting and the expression she composes.
For our ancillary tasks we created we created a poster advertising our album and a digipack cover. We decided to focus our brand on being a more exciting, fun approach to music. Here are some examples of who inspired us.
As Lilly Allen is featured here leant up against the giant L shape, we as a group gathered inspiration off this which gave us the idea to have our artist doing something similar. Instead we chose to have her placed up against a giant green tape in order to be unique and create a product that would stand out from the typical.
This image shows our original design for our CD cover. Although as a group we liked the elements of this cover, we had to agree as a group that the colours and design just did not work. Therefore we decided to start again with our front cover, but still keep existing elements such as the green tape and font used. The new front cover turned out to be a success as it now fits with the brand image and links well with our music video through colour and character.
This is our final version of our digipack in which we created. From the original ideas for our album cover we have now changed the colour scheme, by toning it down to something more neutral so that our images and font attract more. We decided to have the name of the album wrote across the artist's face in order for it to look unique and so that the audience are aware of what the album is called, as well as calling it 'self fulfilled prophecy' named after one of the songs to keep it simple. We also used special effects by the jumps and using various poses to give a more laid- back, enjoyable setting and giving a clear connatation of who our album's target audience is. As said above we have been inspired by Lilly Allen's album cover which is shown by the use of having a similar image of the artist led up against the tape.
This is our final version of the CD poster we created. We decided to change various pictures such as the original image of the artist, as she was originally looking to the left hand side rather than the right, but we thought it would suit more to look the other way. We also added special effects to the poster by having the album hanging down from the animated drapes to make it an indivdual poster and something unique. By just having the least amount of font possible we thought this would work better than giving the busy approach as people make mis - look and become uninterested, we also placed the apple logo in the corner to make it seem a more realistic product.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
When discussing our target audience we found our genre would to appeal to both male and female from the age 16+ meaning it appeals to the socio - economic groups D and E (young people and working class)
The target audience is a very important factor when designing our music products. I believe the one we decided to chose was perfect as it is a large niche consuming audience which is constantly growing and expanding. The indie genre is very popular amongst teenagers as they can relate to the connatations given, such as to be free and enjoy theirseleves etc. We maintained a brand image throughout in order to maintain out appeal to it's audience particularly. They are a good target audience financially as well, as indie groups are low budget, independent lables and will be able to gain maximum profit from their sales.
In order to gather audience feedback the whole class made questionnaires in which we watched each others final music video and answered the questions relating to it. The class then was videoed whilst they gave there indivdual answers back to the class in order for them to take criticisms as well as positive feedback. To our success our use of different locations and screen shots proved popular amongst the class, which we all agreed that the technique worked well within the video.
We edited our footage in order to attract our target audience and used the different locations/settings to relate to our audience and therefore create a relationship with their values and the video.
From our audience feedback we gained a lot of positive comments. I learnt to order to relate to the target audience you need to follow the conventions of that paricular genre, in this case indie - pop. By chosing a relatable scenario, such as here making
The use of technology.
Final Cut Express.
At the beginning of the year this software was new to us all so in order to learn how to use it properly we each did a small tutorial in which we picked up the skills. By using this software it has allowed me to learn new skills to produce various products and be successful in planning and completing a music video. When first starting to edit our video we found this very difficult and confusing but luckily one of our group members already had slight knowledge on what to do, and eventually we all picked it up and was able to participate. We first had to upload our music video onto the final cut express which wasn't an issue as everything was clearly labelled. We did however find various parts difficult, for example we wanted to use split screen in order to show our artist in different locations, this wasn't easy as non of us was clued up on what to do, but with help from the media tec we soon learnt how to produce this and it turned out to be a success.
Photoshop and Indesign.
To create our ancillary tasks we used Photoshop and Indesign of which most of us had used last last year to produce our magazines, so our skills were too an average standard but still needed improvements when using them. We used these to edit our photos and add various effects on, by participating in this it refreshed my memory to become more involved and more skilled. By using these programmes again this year, it has allowed me to progress my knowledge and learn skills i didn't have beforehand when creating my album cover and poster.
Other Technology
When capturing our pictures and filming our footage we used equipment from college which was easy to get hold of. These pieces of equipment was quite simple to use as we had a slight tutorial teaching us what we needed to know about the camera and the video camera. When creating our font for the two products we produced, we used a website called
http://www.dafont.com/ where we found our suitable font. This website was very familar to me as i had used it previously to complete other prodjects.
In order to keep track of our indivdual progress we each uploaded posts onto our blogg, on
http://www.blogger.com/, which made it an easier way in viewing our progress rather than constantly writing it down. I found blogger very easy and effective to use as I had lots of knowledge on the programe from the previous year. This allowed each indivdual to write their progress down in order to view it as a group.
When we had completed our music video our next task was to upload it to the website youtube. This was done so we could gain audience feedback from other memebers outside our media class in order to get other peoples opinions on our video. It was easy to upload our music video as the instructions were easy to follow.
From using all of this technology I believe the skills we have learnt have made it easier to produce our music video and without this software and various tools, we wouldn't have been able to make a professional, successful product.
Conclusion
Overall i think our product was successful, we seemed to follow most things we had planned within our storyboard, various scenes were changed such as at the beginning we originally planned to have the artist walk up to the frames but this was impossible as we needed more time to film. So instead we chose to add fun sections of the artist messing around to create a more laid - back approach to the video. We used the split screen well in order to show our artist in different locations fitting in within the lyrics 'I just want to make a change' showing that artist is fed up and now wants to become successful. Our feedback from the audience gave us many positives on our video and how it was a success but also there was room for improvement such as possibly less locations and less costumes ideas as it could sometimes come across as too much, and drag their attention away from the video. By hearing this feedback it gave us as a group help on how we could have improved it and we appreciated the negatives and took them on board.
I personally enjoyed creating the video and being part of it as it allowed me to learn new skills and participant in something different that i haven't done before.
I believed a made a fair contribution to producing our final product as i attended most meetings but could of possibly made effort to attend more but was made difficult in certain cases. I also become involved in filming the video as well as being an extra needed in one of the scenes as well as editing various pictures and the video itself.
