Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our video was conventional to its genre as it followed some of the norms and conventions of other videos in its genre. One video which influenced me was the remake of the KT Tunstall video. Although this video wasn't perfect it followed the conventions. There was some good scenery shots which did inspire us as we felt it would go well with the song and genre. The camera work and location also inspired me. These involved close ups of the artist and the inner city location of this video worked well with the song.
The video showed me plenty of things which I shouldn't do. The shots were extremely slow paced and I felt that a song like this would be better suited to faster paced shots.
INFLUENCE
VOICE OVER EXPLANATION
Because of the genre and in particular style of the song, I felt that there was no option but to follow the conventions, rather than challenge them. I considered challenging them by following methods used by very mainstream artists. For example, using the green screen and a set much more or putting plenty of make up on the artist. However, I felt this would not have worked with this artist and the conventions of this particular genre.
Other ways in which I followed the conventions, was to include the guitar in the video and digipack. This prop is definitely conventional to this genre and by including it in the video and digipack, it makes them look more professional. The nature shots, for example the leaves, grass and scenery shots worked well with the artist and her earthy personality.
I also did challenge the conventions of the 'pop' genre by not including so much editing and special effects. This is because it would not have been well suited to the artist or the song itself so editing was done but kept to a minimum.
I decided to use the conventions of the 'BBC Pop' genre when creating the digipack. I made the writing clear and bold for the audience to see. There is nothing extravagant as I felt over editing and adding too many effects would challenge the conventions and look unprofessional. The image on the front cover has been touched up in photoshop to keep her skin clear and photogenic. The back includes the logo of the record company, the barcode, website of the artist, website of record label and the information on copyright and distribution.
For the advert I followed the conventions by adding the copyright and record label logo's. After studying some other artists' adverts, I noticed most included reviews. So for mine I included two good reviews from famous newspapers which followed conventions. The writing is big and bold and the logo's of where you can purchase the album is clearly visible. The release date and promotion for hit singles are also conventional for adverts to have, which is why I have included them in mine.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipack and advertisement)?
Password = Student
The first link is the picture of the artist shown on all three products.
The title of the album is shown on the digipack and advertisement.
The colour scheme (grey) is linked through the digipack and advert.
The font is linked between the digipack and advert.
The video is called 'Suddenly I see' as is the album (written on it) and on the advert it promotes 'Suddenly I see.'
The digipack has a photo of Carnaby Street which is shown in the video and is quite iconic and recognisable to the audience.
The record label info links in the digipack and advertisement.
I believe that the ancillary texts are successful and work. I think my target audience would be attracted because it goes along with the artist's personality and her audience's personality. It also attracts a much wider audience, especially the older audience because of the neutral tone of the digipack and advert. The text written on the ancillary products were bold and direct. I believe the text on the advert in particular was very successful as it highlighted everything the audience needed to know and also included good reviews and promotion of the hit singles. These two points would further attract the audience and is effective to create excitement to the audience.
3. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages.
RESEARCH
- Use of Web (youtube, google, vimeo, myspace, wikipedia)
CONSTRUCTION
- Blogger, Photoshop, Quark, Final cut pro, Video Camera, Digital camera.
PLANNING
-Moodboard, google
EVALUATION
- Powerpoint, Microphone, Blogger, Vimeo, Youtube
I used a HD video camera - JVC 3CCD. This was used to record the shots of our video. The memory cards were inserted inside both the digital camera and the video camera at all times. This was to make sure everything we shot was saved.
Moodboard - (Planning)
For our research I used a number of websites including google, wikipedia and youtube. To create the moodboard for planning I went onto www.google.com and used the image feature. The images I chose were then printed and cut out to be stuck on.
Final Cut Pro - The split screen effect - (Construction)
To create the split screen effect which was used effectively in our video, we used the crop tool as shown below to crop two different clips. The two clips were then dragged down below on in line with each other and manually split on the screen by selecting and dragging them.
Photoshop editing (Construction)
I used photoshop to edit the photo we took from the digital camera. Here I used the spot healing brush tool to clear out small spots which were visible as it was a medium close up shot. This button (shown next to the arrow) was clicked and you then rub over the spots which you can see. This was used to make the image look more professional.
Quark - (Construction)
This is quark which was used to fit our pages onto the digipack. The images were imported through file then import and were placed directly in these boxes.
Blogger - Embedding video + Links, Adding Pictures and video (Construction)
These three icons at the top were used to embed videos and link to my blog and also add picture and video.
Youtube - embed code, searching and links (planning, research, evaluation and planning)
To get the embed code, I clicked the 'Embed' button underneath. I then copied and pasted this into blogger. For research, I typed in music relating to kt tunstall and possible remakes at the top in the space provided. Also the links on the right had side were used as well.
Powerpoint - planning
Storyboard - (Planning)
4.) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
This is feedback left by one individual in class. I learnt that what we had planned had worked very well with the audience. The feel good vibe which we hoped to gain was shown in this feedback as was the Mise en scene with the guitar. I learnt that natural lighting in the daytime is clearly not enough and that some sort of artificial lighting may be needed.
SECOND WRITTEN FEEDBACK
This is another feedback left by an individual in class. This taught me that the video looked professional and the pace of the shots were on time with the beat. It told me that it may be best to use the camera handheld more often as this was a big plus point with the feedback.
RECORDING OF FEEDBACK
Not only did we get a pretty good feedback from the noise made in the cinema, we also managed to record feedback outside the cinema. Both these feedbacks confirmed that what we intended to do in the planning came across well to the audience. The feel good factor to the song was highlighted as was the quality of our shots. We had gained feedback on our rough cut version from the first person and gained more after and improved the shots which was left before.
I believe overall our video could of done with improvements. I believe the costume was slightly lazy and could have been improved to fit in more with the conventions of a pop genre. Also the lighting on some of the side shots could of been better. However I believe overall the video did follow the conventions and had much more positives than negatives.
Prior to having gained feedback, I didn't know whether the video was good or bad. By gaining feedback it allowed me to decide how I really felt on the video. My doubts of the shot angles were never highlighted in the feedback which was a positive and some of the positives, for example, the way in which the shots go in beat with the music, I had never previously acknowledged until hearing and seeing feedback.
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