Evaluation: Question 4

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

In the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages, I used a variety of media technologies. I used hardware such as a computer scanner, iPhone camera, a Sony Handycam DCR-SR88E camcorder and a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera. I also used software such as search engines and various websites, pickmonkey.com, youtube.com, blogger.com, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel, paint, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Windows Live Movie Maker.

For my primary research in my research stage, I used Microsoft Word to create my questionnaires and Microsoft Power-point and Microsoft Excel to put the data I collected into graphs and charts. For my secondary research I used the search engine google.co.uk, which lead me to many various website where I found pictures to analyse and website with useful information on things such as conventions. I also used the website youtube.com for my secondary research, to find the music videos which I analysed.

For my planning stage, I used an iPhone camera to take pictures of the possible locations I was going to use, and I used email to contact the people who own the location I had chosen to film and take photos on. I also emailed the company who own the rights to 'Happy Face' by Destiny's Child, the song I used in my music video. Before filming my outdoor scenes I used bbc.co.uk/weather to check the weather forecast of the area on the date I was planning on filming, to ensure the conditions were sunny. After drawing up my drafts, I used a scanner so I could present the drafts on my blog.

For my construction stage I used a lot more media technologies. For the filming of my music video, I used a Sony Handycam DCR-SR88E, and to take the photos for my ancillary texts I used a Nikon D3100 DSLR camera. To edit my music video, at first I attempted to use Adobe Premiere Pro, however I had problems whilst using this so I edited the video on Windows Live Movie Maker instead. To edit my ancillary texts, first I edited each photo on picmonkey.com, then I uploaded these photos onto Adobe Photoshop CS4 and created my album cover and magazine advert on there.

For my evaluation stage, I used a computer scanner to upload my audience feedback, and I used Windows Live Movie Maker to create video responses to each evaluation question. I used youtube.com to get screenshots of some videos which I included in the video response, and also edited these screenshots on Paint. I also used my blog on blogger.com to answer the evaluation questions.

Throughout all stages I used my blog on blogger.com, to record all my actions as I went along and to upload evidence of my progress.

Evaluation: Question 3

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My audience feedback has helped me become aware of what went well and what my target audience liked about my main products and ancillary texts, and the ways in which they could also be improved. Whilst creating my music video, I received feedback from a group of my target audience and my Media Studies teacher. Although a lot of the comments were reasonably positive, some of them suggested I add a wider range of transitions to make the video more interesting, to which my teacher expanded on and said I should associate a different transition with each band member. I then took this advice on board, and added a range of transitions to the music video, including a 'heart' transition to introduce the three girls dancing, a 'dissolve' transition between two shots of my actor playing Beyonce, Jessica Nemeth, and a 'circle' transition before most shots which include balloons. These transitions made my video look more interesting, and my target audience confirmed this when I played my video to them again and asked for their feedback. Some of them also enjoyed how I linked different transitions to each band member. This has taught me that receiving audience feedback can be important as their opinions are useful in perfecting my work. In regards to all other aspects of the music video, my feedback was generally quite positive. Many complimented the lip-syncing and how convincing the actors were. They also praised the scenes with confetti and the scenes with balloons, especially the multicoloured effect I had on some of the balloon scenes. There were some criticisms towards my actor's dance routines, and this has taught me that next time, more care and planning should go into the choreography of the dance routines, and the actors should be given more time to practice, so that, when filming, the routines will be executed much better.

For my ancillary texts, the audience feedback also helped me to understand what went well, and what could be improved. For my album cover, there were positive comments aimed towards my colour scheme and the styling of my actors along with their silly poses. There were also many compliments on the layout of my front cover and back cover. The spine received praise for it's realistic design, and the inside covers received praise for their content. This has taught me that through my ability to combine conventions, original ideas and influential research, I can create a successful, realistic product for my target audience. However, I did receive a few criticisms, as a few individuals saw the colour scheme as 'boring', and mentioned I had made a few typographical errors, such as forgetting the apostrophe in "there's". I have learned from this, that next time, I should proof read all my text to ensure there are no errors in the final product.

In my magazine advert, my target audience commended the way in which I had continued the colour scheme from the album cover, and had used the same pictures, immediately linking the two items. The majority enjoyed the simple layout, and called it 'easy to read'. Some however, suggested the text 'Happy Face' and 'Destiny's Child' could be improved by enlarging the text to make it stand out more. From this feedback I have learned that if I were to do this again, I would make more effort to make the important text stand out more, just as I had made an effort to make the pictures stand out more for anchorage purposes.

Evaluation: Question 2

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I feel that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts is effective, because they blend well visually, are clearly related to one another, and follow most codes and conventions of real media products.

One of the frequently used scenes in my music video includes the band singing in front of a white background. The same background is used for the photos on the album covers and magazine advert. Also, in another frequently used scene in my music video, the band members are in white clothing. The band members are dressed in white/pale clothing in the photos used on the album covers and magazine advert. By using the same background and extremely similar costumes to those used in the music video, the audience will immediately associate the products with one another. In the music video, the hair and make-up is reasonably natural, and this same use of styling is apparent in the photos used in the ancillary texts. Another thing which I have transferred from the music video to the ancillary texts is the order in which the girls appear; in the scenes of my music video which include all three actors singing the chorus or dancing, they are stood (from left to right): Claire Lovell (Kelly), Jessica Nemeth (Beyonce), then Claire Hicks (Michelle). I have placed them in this order in the my layout of the photos used in my ancillary texts.

My second inside album cover contains the lyrics to the song, 'Happy Face', which is the song I used in my music video. The title of the album is 'Happy Face', named after the track I had used in the music video. The colour scheme of the ancillary texts is quite natural, which links well with the outdoor scenes in half of my music video and the natural styling throughout the whole of the video. The simple, natural theme throughout the majority of my main product and ancillary texts is to connote that it is not the material things in life that bring forth happiness, it is the simple, natural, 'beautiful things, that you never think about, like the ocean, moonlight, stars and clouds', as quoted from the lyrics of 'Happy Face'.

Another theme that runs throughout my main product and ancillary texts is the theme of fun and youthfulness. In the music video, this theme is expressed through the dancing, laughing, confetti and balloons, along with the pink colours used for the band's costumes. In the ancillary texts, this theme is expressed through the illusion of a 'photo-strip', and the silly faces the actors are pulling in each picture.

In terms of promoting the song/album, I feel that the products I have made do this well, individually and collectively. In the feedback from the questionnaire I had created as part of my primary research, my target audience had stated that a music video can be nearly as important as the song itself, as a good video can attract more views, therefore resulting in more people listening to the song. Because of this, I made the music video to the best of my ability, and made it fun and fast-paced to grab and hold the interest of the audience, therefore successfully promoting the song. The album cover I made is appealing and promotes itself well because its message and target audience comes across clearly, despite it challenging a few conventions. The album title and colour scheme establish the simple, natural, happy theme of the album, and the age and positions my actors are in, connote that the album is also young and fun, which indicates the genre of music being pop/hip hop. My magazine advert is not successful for the same reasons as the album cover, but also through the use of anchorage, the large picture entices the reader and encourages them to find out more.

Evaluation: Question 1

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

Each of the media products I have made, use forms and conventions of real media products. The music video I produced for the song 'Happy Face' by Destiny's Child would most likely be categorized as a concept based music video, because it does not follow a narrative, nor focus on the band performing the song, but instead follows a theme of happiness, nature and purity.

Although the majority of my music video does not directly link with many individual lyrics of the song, the video follows a theme which links to the general message of the song. The song is primarily about happiness, so I ensured I incorporated into the music video elements which connote happiness. I chose to film in the outdoor location of a field because it's wide, open, natural space gave connotations of freedom, and freedom is often associated with happiness. This is similar to one of the music videos I had analysed, Demi Lovato - Skyscraper (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_8ydghbGSg). This video is set in a white desert, and the wide open setting here is most likely being used to connote Demi's new found freedom expressed in the lyrics of her song. Hidden meanings and connotations are conventions of many music videos.

The song I have used is a mix of the genres R&B/Hip Hop and Pop, therefore I have used the conventions of  music videos from both these genres. I have used a R&B/Hip Hop music video convention by including dancing, as dancing and choreography are very common conventions used in R&B/Hip Hop music videos such as Beyonce - Crazy in Love featuring Jay Z (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwtNLUqkMY). A convention of Pop music videos is for there to be lots of fun, vibrancy and colour in the music video, and I achieved this in my music video through the colourful balloon scenes, and through the pink-ish coloured clothing my actors wore in the indoor scene which had connotations of youth and fun. Many Hip Hop and Pop songs are up-tempo and fast paced, and their music videos have editing styles to match. I followed this convention by using fast-paced editing throughout the majority of my video, and by speeding up the pace of editing at appropriate moments in the song where the song speeds up. This technique is used in the music video for Katy Perry - Hot n' Cold (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTHNpusq654), where the pace of editing speeds up at each chorus with the tempo of the song.

I challenged the convention of iconography and male gaze which are commonly featured in Pop and R&B/Hip Hop music videos, where the women in the video are seen as an object of male desire, and convey and place emphasis on their sexuality through their minimal clothing and through their make-up. The reason I chose to challenge such a frequently present convention, is because the lyrics of the song which I am using are very unique, and very different from most Pop and R&B/Hip Hop songs. Therefore the message of the song is different, which is why I believed the choice of styling and clothing should be different. Most Pop and R&B/Hip Hop songs are about love, attraction and/or partying, which is why heavy make-up and sexual clothing would be appropriate, however the song I have chosen, 'Happy Face', is about happiness, and the satisfaction and joy found in the simple, natural things in life. Therefore I thought innocent clothing and natural styling would be more appropriately suited, which is why I dressed my actors in this way.

For my ancillary tasks I used the majority of the conventions for an album cover and for a magazine advert for an album cover.

When designing my album front cover, the colour scheme was mostly white, with brown and black. These natural colours relate to the natural styling I gave my actors for the music video. The natural theme I used challenges the typical album cover which uses modern and contemporary colours, however this makes my album cover more unique, and despite this there are still other album covers within the same genre that have a natural theme in it's design, such as the cover for 'Beyonce - B'day'. My album cover features the name of the band and the album title, and these are conventions of an album cover.My album's back cover used many more conventions, as it had a centralised list of tracks, a bar-code in the bottom right hand corner, legal information at the bottom and company logos. The layout is quite similar  to the layout of Jessie J's album, 'Who You Are'. I kept the colour scheme consistent from the front cover, to the back cover, to the inside cover and the spines, as this is an important convention that keeps the whole album cover presentable and consistent. The inside covers challenged conventions by having more text than usual, however they were still visually consistent with the rest of the album. The album cover's spin followed the conventions of real media products, with the serial/barcode number on one end, the company logos on the other, and the band name and album title in the centre, with the same fonts and colour scheme used in the rest of the album. This is present on the sine of the album '4' by Beyonce.

For my magazine advert I used anchorage, which is a convention used in nearly all magazine adverts, where the picture acts as the 'hook' to grab hold of the reader's attention, before the text then gives the meaning.The largest item on my magazine advert is the picture, followed by the text for the band name and the album title. These are all conventions which I have used, and which can also be found on other album magazine adverts such as the one for Gwen Stefani's album 'Love Angel Music Baby'. The picture I used was from my album's front cover, and so was the font and the colour scheme. These all, again, are ways in which my media product has used forms and conventions of real media products. My magazine advert also includes the album's release date, successful released singles and ratings, which are all things I found on other magazine adverts I had analysed.

My Final Magazine Advert and Audience Feedback

After showing a group of my target audience the magazine advert I made, I asked them to write down what they liked about it, and what they disliked/what they believed could be improved. 

The majority of my target market complimented the simplicity of the magazine advert, and the clear and consistent colour scheme. They also praised how I included all the important information, and how I used the same fonts, colours and pictures I used in my album cover. Quite a lot of my target market, however, found faults in the sizes I had used for the majority of the text. Although the alum title and band name were larger than most of the rest of the text, some of my target market claimed they were not large enough to grab attention. Some suggested that I should have increased the size of 'Destiny's Child' and 'Happy Face' then reduced the size of the rest of the text. Despite this, most of my target market liked the general layout and order of the text, saying that it 'flowed'. 

Editing my Magazine Advert

Because I am using the same photos that I used for my front cover, I did not need to do a separate photo-shoot for my magazine advert.

To start off, I created a new A4 sized canvas.

I opened up my album cover, and selected the first photo from the top right hand corner of the album cover. I then copied it.

I pasted this photo onto my A4 sized canvas and placed it near the top right hand corner.

I copied and pasted the rest of the pictures from the album cover, one by one, onto the A4 canvas, leaving a small, equal sized gap between each picture. I then added the text 'Destiny's Child' in the same colour and font which I had used on the front cover: 'adobe caslon pro'.

I wanted to add a small diamond to separate each piece of information on the page, so I added a full stop, changed the font to 'lucida calligraphy', which has diamonds as full stops, and increased the font size until the 'diamond' had reached the size I desired.

I added the album title, 'Happy face' underneath, in the same colour and font it had the album's front cover. I made the font size slightly larger than the font used for 'Destiny's Child'. Below that I added another 'diamond'.

Below that I wrote text saying 'the new album' and mentioned two released, 'hit' singles from the album. The text was in the same colour and font used for the text 'Destiny's Child', however the names of the two released singles were in the same colour used for the text 'Happy Face', so that they would stand out slightly. Beneath that I added another 'diamond'. 

I went online and saved a picture of give black stars, to use a ratings on my magazine advert.

I opened up the stars on Adobe Photoshop CS4, then copied and pasted them onto the bottom of the page. I added text underneath of the people who had 'rated' the album. After this I added the release date at the top of the page, and a border around the whole page to make it stand out slightly more.

This is my final magazine advert.

Drafts for my Magazine Advert

I have drawn a draft for my magazine advert, which has been influenced by my album cover, and my primary and secondary research. 

I am planning on making my album cover very simplistic, with a white background, and minimal text. I will use the same pictures from my album's front cover, laid out in a similar way. At the top of the page I will write the release date in clear, block capitals. Beneath that will be the pictures, and beneath that will be the rest of the text. First of all I will have the band name, in the same colour and font used on the album cover, then underneath will be the album title, also in the same colour and font it was written in on the album front cover. Below that will be some test saying 'the new album' and the names of two successful singles from the album. Underneath that will be 5-star ratings of the album.