Final Music Video

Final Digipak

Final Digipak

Final Magazine Advert

Final Evaluation

Evaluation Question 1 & 4

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

My music video I created is part of the pop genre. The song I decided to use was Chris Brown ‘Beautiful People’. I chose this song in particular due to it having a good meaning behind and being something the audience could relate to.

The video doesn’t follow many theorists’ ideas in relation to theorists such as Kate Domaille who talk about the fatal flaw, the indomitable hero or the dream comes true. Nor does the video follow points Tzvetan Todorov makes, such as the 5 stages of equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition, action and restoration. Like stated before my video doesn’t have a story line, it’s merely following real life. Nothing is staged.

My music video follows the conventions of theorists such as Laura Mulvey and her idea about the camera gazing at the woman on the screen and ‘the whore’. The camera continuously lingers on the female figure at the start and end of the video. The use of close ups at the beginning attract the viewers as they watch the girl turn into ‘the whore’. As the song starts to come to an end extreme close-ups are used as the footage of ‘the whore’ is put in reverse and the audience can note that ‘the whore’ is attempting to regain her innocence and purity. These short clips relate to the lyrics ‘beautiful people’, in turn the lyrics show that everyone is beautiful, hence why ‘the whore’ takes off her makeup; she is beautiful without it.

 With reference to Claude Levi Strauss, my video relates to his theory in terms of his idea of binary opposites. The video uses a variety of shots such as close-ups, high angle shots and mid shots to show the variation between the contrast of white and black people/cultures. The idea of using focus pull various amounts of times was to make the video more interesting for the audience. Using shots such as the footage on the planes made the video more visually stimulating as it was intended to make the audience feel as though they were part of a journey that allowed them to see ‘how the other side live’.

When creating my magazine advert I was able to take advantage of some of the images I had taken while on holiday to Zambia. Due to being the target audience of pop and listening to the likes of Chris Brown I was able to pick out images I thought would attract the target audience. I took inspiration from Calvin Harris choosing what font and layout I would have for my magazine advert. With the reason that his music video were upbeat and unique and would attract a similar audience as mine I decided his font would best suit my video. I added the ratings for the album at the bottom of the page in order for the readers of the magazine to note that it was an album worth listening to. I went with the usual conventions of having the artist’s name in large font to attract the audience into looking at the advert. The name of the album is placed under the artist name in order for the readers to note what the album is called when going to purchase it. At the top of the page readers can note what forms the album can be purchased in. this is due to the reason that different types of people that listen to music have their own preferred source to listen to music. Hence why the album is advertised to be in many forms; to attract the readers to purchase the album.

The image I chose is used in order to grab the reader’s attention. This is done by the model giving direct address through looking at the camera. This in turn makes the readers intrigued as to what the album withholds. The colours white and black are used to stand out from the full blown image in the background; this makes it easier for the audience to read. In addition the colours relate to the video as it shows binary opposites of both black and white people/cultures.

The Digipak I made is fairly similar to the magazine advert. It uses the same image and font to create brand recognition. This in turn allows the audience to recognise the album when they see it, making them more likely to buy the album than if they hadn’t recognised to font and image. I added a barcode to make it easier for people when purchasing the album. The list of tracks at the back of the Digipak allow for the audience to get an idea of what songs are on the album. The images used were chosen to bring a sense of happiness to those who buy the Digipak, this would connotate to the audience that the songs are happy and uplifting. One of the images taken was by reducing the shutter speed. This allowed for a more blurry image, making the Digipak look interesting and creative.
 

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

Studying media at A-Level I was required to create a blog. Starting this year I was asked to create another blog. Having a blog made it easier for me to track my progress and add any ideas, thoughts, planning and research. Having a blog I decided to use a variety of website to add any work I had in order to make the blog more appealing. I used website such as Prezi, Voki, Slideshare and Scirbd to also make it easier to add and read document. I was able to put up PowerPoint slides I had made using Slideshare. Having needed to put my music video up on my blog I found that it was easier to use YouTube. I was able to upload my video and embed them onto my blog. In addition, YouTube allowed me to look at various music videos for inspiration on what to do with mine. The internet was an essential part of my first year doing A-Level and was equally as essential when creating my video, magazine advert and Digipak. I was able to use the internet to look up ideas on what fonts I could use, where I could shoot my footage and pluck vital information on any subject I needed to know, such as looking up music video directors for one of my blog posts.

I used the Canon 550D when capturing the images for my Digipak, magazine advert and for shooting the footage for my music video. I used techniques such as allowing the lens to take in more light when it was too dark to take any footage and reduced the brightness when too bright; I did this by changing around the ISO. In addition, I was able to reduce the shutter speed when taking footage of the Ferris wheel; this allowed me capture it spin while people walked past.

While filming the footage of the girl putting on makeup, I used a steady cam to film the close-ups in order for the footage not to look shaky but rather more professional. When shooting this footage I went into a dark room in order to create the effect of infinite darkness. In order to make the artist stand out I placed lights at different angles of her body but allowed there to be no chance of seeing some aspects that weren’t black e.g. door handles. However, while filming the other footage I filmed by hand as it made it easier for me to travel without having to take a tripod with me.

I used Photoshop CSE when editing the photos I was going to use for the magazine advert and the Digipak. I was able to enhance the colours and make the images brighter allowing for the images to look better. I also used the spot check tool to erase any imperfections in the images in order for them to look more professional. After the editing the images I placed them onto InDesign. With InDesign I was able to add texts and shapes to the magazine advert. I was also able to use the ruler guidelines in order for me to ensure the texts were in the right place. Being able to add stars made it easier for me when it came to adding the ratings of the album as it saved me from having to go through the trouble of having to find images of stars online to place on the magazine advert.

I used Premier CS6 to produce and edit my video together. With the help on Premier CS6 I was able to have a folder of all the footage I was thinking about using. I was able to watch the videos before placing them onto the music video timeline which saved time after I had filmed al my footage. I was able to cut and crop the footage I wanted or wanted to place somewhere else. Premier CS6 had the option of having multiple layers. With having multiple layers I was able to look at what footage would best suit what place without having to move too much around. I was able to speed up my footage when needed, this allowed for my video to look more interesting as I was able to fit a variety of clips in the short amount of time I had. After editing my footage together I uploaded the draft onto YouTube in order for me to place my blog and allow other people to see it in order for me to get feedback. However, due to the song being copyright I wasn’t able to show the people in Zambia the video. I was able to go back to the video to make changes based on the audience feedback I had gotten from a variety of platforms such as Survey Monkey.

All my progress was added back on my blog in order for me to check how far I had come and how far I had to go in order for me to improve my work further and progress.

Through my A-Levels I had noted; I was able to create a video with little planning but creating a magazine took much needed planning as more work seemed to go into following guidelines whereas a video allowed me to be more creative. I had done little planning before I took the camera with me on my summer holiday to Zambia. Soon after choosing Chris Brown Beautiful People as my song I instantly had an idea. I had gone on YouTube and researched how to use the Cannon SLR 550D. I had learnt how to focus my video. Going on a plane inspired me to film outside my window. However, focusing, adjusting the lighting and trying to keep still was difficult while the plane was moving. Being creative didn’t need intensive planning, putting together thoughts and ideas however was something that needed to be thought through.

With a variety of media technologies I was able to put my creative thoughts down and arrange them to be aesthetically pleasing for those who I wanted to target my video to.

Timelaps

Health and Safety Evidence