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

Beth answered this question on  her evaluation. Now that our music video is finished and edited, we must look back at the process of our work and look at where we could have improved and what we have done well.

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

The first typical pop music convention that we have used is product placemet. During research, we noticed that many leading pop starts make use of product placement. During research, we noticed that many leading pop stars make use of product placement during their videos, for example we noticed artists such a Jessie J, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj all use product placement in their music videos. I believe this is a convention of pop music as pop artists have the power to be highly influential in their videos and give their fans an insight as to what brands and logos they support.

The next convention that the audience will see is a main one that appears during the whole video - performance. Pop music videos tend to be performance based, more so than a narrative, as the lyrics in our chosen song are quite repetitive, as a group we decided it would be more effective to base the video on performance, in order to give the audience something else to focus and enjoy. The inspiration for this came from the original 'Domino' music video, the entire video is performance based, and is therefore a pre-set success.

Soon after, we see the artist have an outfit change, as well as a change in location. This is a pop music convention, as it can also be identified in other pop songs including Domino, Hot n' Cold and Call me Maybe. This convention is used so the audience have something to keep them drawn to the video; also the settings are key in creating the illusion of the atmosphere of the music video.

The next main convention that appears is the use of an extremem close of a facial feature, such as eyes or mouth. In our video we have included a close up of the character's lips, to connote phallic imagery, to confrom with Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory. This is conventional because it can be seen in other pop music videos where the artist has been made to look seductive for the pleasure of a male audience.

 

 Typically in a pop song, the bridge has a slightly different tone to the rest of the song. To compliment this, the video must have a different image to accomodate for the difference in the tone, even when it is for a couple of stanzas. In our video we have changed the setting of the video to conform to this convention. The bridge can be seen as low key lighting, and a slightly more serious image than the rest of the song. The main image of the rest of the song resumes after the bridge.

 

Pop music videos are usually fast paced and upbeat, conforming to this convention, Domino is a fast paced song. Conventionally the cuts in the video must change with the beat. We have conformed to this in our music video in order to please our target audience. Especially towards the end of the song, as the pace of the song increases, the cuts rapidly increase, so that the video works well with the song.

Overall, our finished product conforms to pop music video conventions, as it would be expected to. We have sone this in order for our target audience to be pleased with our video, and see the conventions they would expect to see when watching a pop music video. It was with thanks to our peer feedback and audience feedback that we have determined the main conventions of a pop music video, and have applied them to be as effective as possible. Many of the conventions we have used, we have only been able to create through the use of technology. For example the use of close ups can only be achieved by zooming in with the camera, or the lighting used has been emphasised by filters available on Final Cut Pro.

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

To answer this question Simran chose to answer it on a timeline website called TimeToast, She has created a timeline reflecting the different forms of technology our group have used. She chose to do this as it makes it easy to read and it was a more creative way of structuring the information.

Evaluation - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Simran answered this question using a mind map, created on the website Bubbl. She chose to use this programme as she had never used it before, and it is easy to read.

Evaluation - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

This question is based on how linked the 3 products are; the digipak, the magazine promotional advert, and the music video. I have presented this through a Prezi, covering the similarities and differences between the three.

Final music video.

Below I have embeded the final music video for our group. We have done the song 'Domino' by Jessie J as she conforms to the conventions of a pop artist. Simran focused on the digipak and adverts, while Beth and myself focused on the directing, filming and editing of the video.

During our creation, we have tried to include as many conventional features of pop music videos as we could. For example, we have changed outfits and looks numerous times throughout the video. We have included evidence of the male gaze (Laura Mulvey) as it is alsways featured in female leaded pop music videos. Close ups of the face and parts of the face are also present such as the eyes and lips.

Digipak Promotional Magazine Advert.

Below is the image that Simran created for the digipak promotional magazine advert. She aimed to create the promotional advert with the same motif a the digipak, and used PhotoShop to help her do this. By doing this she has made the digipak and the advert related and associated with each other. She has used the image from the front panel of the digipak and the same typography font.

Like conventional digipak promotional adverts, she has made sure to include the main features that you expect to see. For example, the image takes up most of the advert, and she has included taglines. Also she has mentioned where the audience can buy the album.

Final digipak.

After getting feedback from our target audience, we decided to change the image on the front panel. This is because our audience suggested that the picture wasn't related in any way to the title of the album 'Uneducated', and it is conventional of the pop genre to have the two linked in some ways. Therefore we changed the picture to a different one, where the artist is looking more rebellious and mischievious, connecting to the title and theme a bit more.
Below is the final edited digipak. Simran also created a video with QuickTime showing how she edited and created the new cover for the digipak.

Draft digipak.

 Firstly, Simran drew out by hand a draft of the digipak, including all four panels using a template.

Simran then created the digipak for our product on Photoshop, with the inner panel as well as both back and front of the digipak. She downloaded the font 'Davy Francis' from a free online font website as she thought the ones on Photoshop would not be very effective for our product. However, as a group we decided to choose a pink and white colour scheme with black as the accenting colour. This is because we thought it was conventional of pop music, as it is a bright colour as well as conveying the sterotypes of gender.
 

Comparison of digipaks 2

In our group, it was decided that myself and Beth would film and edit the video, while Simran would do the digipak and magazine advert. As part of her research, she studied 3 digipak promotional advert s. She presented this on FlipSnack, which is an online flip book to see how they would be presented if they were in a magazine. She's looked at Jessie J, Rihanna and Ellie Goulding. This is because we are doing Jessie J as our music video and the other two are both females from the pop genre.

There are some key features in all 3 adverts:

• They all include an image of the album cover or digipak. This takes up most of the magazine page, which makes it clear to readers who's music is being advertised and which album they need to buy to listen to it.
• To make it clear who's music is being sold, there are close ups of the artist on the magazine and digipak.
• Artist names and album names are clearly written - making their target audience easily find and buy music.
• Tag lines are related to singles from the albums. They are commonly used and mentioned, and the target audience may be attracted to the advert due to the singles listed and readers may consider buying the album purely because they like one of the singles.
• Website links or links to where you can buy or pre-order the album are sometimes included to add extra information to the whereabouts of the music.
• A release date, to let the audience know when the product is available to buy.
• Ratings of the album from newspapers and critics - giving the audience an insight on how the album has been percieved.

 As we are including a digipak magazine advertisement, it is important to look at examples of promotions so we know what to be aiming for in the creation of our final digipak and magazine advert. It also allows our group to become inspired when creating and editing our design, and exploring the conventions of one while providing suitable guidelines.

Therefore, the features listed above are to be used in the final digipak product, and promotional advert. The design should look conventional to the genre while also looking realistic and promoting the digipak and music video.

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Comparison of digipaks.

In today's lesson, my class learn about digipaks and why they are used. We learnt about how they are used in the music industry and what is included in them. A digipak is a way that the music artist promotes themselves. It can be in either 4 or 6 panels featuring an album cover, a track list, a close up of the artist, which usually follows a theme. The theme relates to the musician's album and body of work on the CD. As the song we have chosen in 'Domino' by Jessie J, I have analysed relevant pop artist's digipaks. This is so we can gain ideas about our own digipak and how to design it. It will give us a better overall idea and understand what is conventional of digipaks.

Below is an analysis of various digipaks from the pop genre such as Marina and the diamonds. As a female in the pop genre, she has the same target audience as us - teenagers.

I also chose to analyse Britney Spear's digipak as she is another successful pop artist. Additionally, i chose to look at one of her digipaks because she is a young woman and so her digipak could be conventional of women in the pop genre. Furthermore, it demonstrates the male gaze (Laura Mulvey). Below, I've embedded a Photoshop document where I've been analysed and compared her digipak to the others.

I also came across Rihanna's digipak for her album 'Loud'. What i liked about this digipak is how the three inner panels have been used to create one overall image. Like the Britney Spears digipak, it is demonstrating the male gaze as Rihanna's lips are slightly parted. From looking at the embedded image below Rihanna is denoted lying in a bed of roses with her fiery red hair. I think using the three inner panels to create one composition is interesting and something different. My group could try to experiment with using photography in the inner panels of the digipak to create a composition. We could also pick a colour scheme in order to increase the continuity and have a colour palette.

The male gaze viewing theory.

The male gaze (Laura Mulvey) is a theory that is conventional in music videos and has relevance to the pop sub culture. As our music video has a female lead the theory can be applied to our work. My group member, Simran, made this prezi about the male gaze.

Rejected footage

Our original idea for our video was to use a green screen and put a background over it, as seen in Jessie J's music video 'Price Tag', which suggests that it is conventional of pop music videos. She used pastel colours such as pink and purple and we attempted to recreate the idea.

 

We chose two backgrounds from Google Images which we wanted to use our background for our green screen.



Simran has uploaded the video in which we experimented editing with a green screen in Final Cut Pro.




The reasons we didn't include the green screen was because:

• It didn't look realistic. It had a clear line around Beth making it look fake and like we had obviously put her over the screen, and not giving us the desired effect of her actually looking like she was there.
• It glitches and fades around certain parts in the video. We tried to alter this as best as we could but it still failed to blend in with the background. For example, Beth's hand.

Therefore, the reason we didn't include the green screen in our video was because we didn't want our footage to be bad quality as it doesn't look professional. This could have brought down the quality of our overall video so to replace the green screen we have decided to use a white screen to replicate a studio. We also chose to use a shadow effect for the bridge.

Jessie J - Biography.

Jessie J, real name Jessica Cornish, is originally from Seven Kings, Essex. Her first musical performance was at the age of 3 in a holiday camp where she forgot her words to 'Twinkle Twinkle'. She attended dance classes at the Wenn Stage school at the same age, where she started singing (the video below is of her playing Blousey Brown in Bugsy Malone) At age 11, she was cast in Andrew Lloyd Webber's West End musical of 'Whistle Down the Wind' where she played the part of Brat for two years.

After going through high school, and keeping her talent quite secretive, she attended the BRIT school at age 16. She studied musical theatre, exceeding in music, dance and drama, as well as doing the subject Art. While at BRIT school she joined a girl group as a campaign 'Mothers against guns.' They released a single called 'Why' which is about mothers speaking out for their children that have been shot. The video below is of the group, Soul Deep, singing their campaign song. 

After being in the girl group for two years, and recovering from a stroke when she was 18, Jessie was back singing again, and managed to get signed by Gut records, an independent record label. While she was with them she did support tours with stars such as Cyndi Lauper, Chris Brown and Girls Aloud. She was ready to release her first single 'Sexy Silk' and had an album ready. Unfortunately, the  record label went bankrupt before she managed to release anything. During the time she was there, she put up youtube videos of her singing to build her fan base. 

After Gut went bankrupt, Jessie had to run around and try and get herself signed before she lost all her music. After not being able to get signed in the UK, she went to the US and managed to get signed to Sony ATV as a songwriter. After writing hits such as 'Party in USA' for Miley Cyrus and 'I need this' for Chris Brown, she got signed to Island Records. Following the release of her first single, 'Do it like a dude' in 2010, she topped the BBC Sound of 2011 list and won the BRIT Critics' Choice award.

Her first number 1 was 'Price Tag' which was released in February 2011. Her debut album 'Who you are' was released shortly after Price tag and sold 105,000 copies in the first week, reaching number 2 on the iTunes album charts. Below is the album 'Who You Are'. 

Jessie's career has blown up following the release of another 5 singles: "Nobody's perfect, Who's laughing now, Who you are, Domino and Laserlight, all of which reached the top 10. This made Jessie the first British female solo artist to get 6 or more singles from one album in the top ten on the charts. 

Jessie became an ambassador for Comic Relief and shaved her hair off for charity on Red Nose Day. She helped raised 100,331,808.

In 2013, Jessie released her second studio album, called 'Alive.' Her first single, 'WILD' debuted at number 5 on the iTunes single chart. Jessie is currently working on a new version of the album Alive, which is the American version.

References; 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_You_Are_(Jessie_J_album)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_J

http://www.rednoseday.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alive_(Jessie_J_album)
http://youtube.com

Advanced Equipment List

For my music video,  my group and I will need various pieces of equipment to film and edit our music video. These include:

- Video Camera - To film the footage.
- Tripod - To hold the camera steady and get clear and accurate shots.
- Artificial coloured lighting - To get the colour of our video right and an accurate picture.
- iMovie - on the macbook and for editing the footage of our music video.

The below objects are needed to be in the actual shots of the music video.

- A house - setting of the music video.
- Drinks
- Twister
- Party poppers
- Balloons
             

Health and safety assessment.

As a group, we created a safety risk asessment before we created our music video. This was so that we can determine if the location that we are planning to film in has any serious health and safety risks. If so, we can decide how to combat these risks and make the locations safe to film in, or we can just pick a new location.

Below is a risk assessment that we made as a group. We know that we will be filming in a house and creating a house party and therefore we made ourselves aware of the risks that are involved. For example, falling down the stairs.

Music video risk assessment from simrantakhar