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

Our music video sticks to the conventions of an R ‘n’ B genre music video. We have both the performance shots of the artist which we have filmed in front of a green screen and there is also a narrative performed by a young couple. The linear structure of our music video is straight forward, with the storyline unravelling in order, starting with the death of the boyfriend and then the girlfriend’s story of how she is grieving at his death. I believe this is following the conventions of most R ‘n’ B genre music videos. Our research shows they are aimed at a wide range of audiences including young teenagers and generally the narrative tends not to be complex.

Our editing style also conforms to the conventions and the use of camera angle and the cuts we used when editing are in time with the music. The narrative sections are comprised of basic styles of shots including long shots, medium shots and close ups with a selection of establishing shots. The editing style is very fast paced and we did this purposely to fit with the lyrics, one part we feel we edited well is the tapping of the foot in time with the beat of the song. Also we are very pleased with the timing of the lyrics and the miming of the lyrics which we found very difficult to sync perfectly with the music. We made very fast paced performance and narrative sections of the music video because it worked well with the beat of the song.

Our editing style was very conventional and we used similar texts to help us structure the editing. Even so we did explore a variety of effects and editing methods that were not so conventional. We did try exploring a variety of effects that were not mainstream. For example, cutting quickly between different shots and the red (fire of hell effect) colour effect over all the performance scenes. Looking at the two pictures above show similar style, the focus is on the artist and it has a still background. The picture on the right of the artist in ‘N-Dubz’ plays a similar character to Emily so we looked at her performance for inspiration.

The closes up shots portray the intimacy and attachment that is evident between the two young lovers. The camera angles help to establish who the performer is and her role as both the artist and the girlfriend.

During the initial planning phase I feel we worked well as a group and I think that we were able to successfully get our ideas down. We used parts of everyone’s initial ideas to make the video representative of everyone in the group. We were really pleased with our first couple of drafts of the story board and the script and we feel we adhered to the conventions well. During filming and when redrafting the script we added further ideas to our music video and this made the story line more interesting and fun to film. As a group I feel we enjoyed this stage of our coursework the most.

We think the narrative section is very clear and well structured. The Mise-en-scene we created as well as the narrative structure of the music video, reinforces the conventional flow that our piece has, this was our intention. We learnt techniques about continuity and flow from our AS coursework so we used this knowledge to help us create a conventional flow to the music video. We created a realistic setting to all our locations through a lot of in-depth research of film sets, music video sets and other music videos of the same genre. We were taking particular interest in props and lighting in music videos so we could create locations that looked good on screen. We feel this is key to making a realistic narrative.

The mise-en-scene we created alongside cultural codes has been used to establish that the music video is set in London. The bedroom and en suite have also been used to try to represent that it is set in London (we were aiming to portray a London hotel setting). London is a mega city and life in London is fast paced and as such is representative of the fast pace of the song. Using the locations such as Central London and Trafalgar square we are creating a more interesting video for the audience. This Christmas time theme draws more feeling and emotion from the artist, she is feeling sad she is on her own during Christmas. The use of London in an R ‘n’ B music video does break the conventions but we think it works well and is interesting.

Also we had to portray that the artist is feeling down and sad, so by placing the song in front of a black background we could really focus all the audience’s attention on the artist and her expressions.

The use of mise-en-scene was key to this music video. Further to our research we were looking to reinforce the forms and conventions that were evident in other music videos of this genre. Looking at our music video I believe we can compare it to many videos that have been produced professionally, I think that the sons we featured is still current and the music video is very well produced and the feedback we have received has been very positive.

The main influence of our music video was looking at similar artists and bands within the same genre and those who are targeting a similar age group to our video. We studied their approach to getting a narrative and performance where the concept met our target audience. Some of the artists we looked at completely challenged all forms and conventions set while others reinforced the conventions through performance and narratives. For example Alexandra Burke (album cover-Right) follows the convention of making the image the first thing the eyes are drawn to and the text simple and plain, However Rihanna’s Artwork for her song ‘who’s that chick’ has an opposite effect and the first thing you see is the background and the colours, and it’s not until you take a second look that you actually see Rihanna.

As a group we decided it would be best if we tried to strike a balance between both so that we could reach a larger audience. We were influenced by Rihanna herself, as we watched her live performances to analyse how she played her role as an artist on stage. We attempted to imitate her in our performance section of our music video because it is conventional and would look realistic.

There are some ways in which we have slightly challenged the conventions of the genre, such as the effect we created for the performance sections of the video (colour of hell). Our reason for doing this effect was to focus the audience on the singer and her actions. Also we spent a lot of time getting the performance to be one hundred percent in time with the lyrics of the sound track. As a group we feel this has definitely made our video look professional. We have made a very realistic video which is mainly due to the narrative, unlike some of Rihanna’s videos which are very controversial such as ‘Disturbia’ and others are very powerful such as her song ‘Rude boy’. Lady Gaga is another popular female artist who has very abstract style music videos which are popular with our target audience.

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

We tried to produce a video that we thought could have the potential to reach a mainstream audience. The marketing of a product is key to reaching the potential audience. We did this through several representation methods of female artists. By portraying the female in a sexualized way we have followed the conventions, but also created something exciting and new. For example our first image (right) which we used in our digi-pack is similar to other texts but slightly pushes boundaries. Using these sexualised images in both the music video and in the photography for the Digi-pack we tried to reach our audience and conformed to the conventions.

Our music video is different in some areas which is very important as audiences want to see new things and if artists continue to produce the same thing over and over again the audience will get jaded. We have developed the conventions and used them to influences our media product without being exactly the same as other media texts of the same genre.

In our music video, we have used many conventional shots of a strong confident women. We got a lot of this style from artists such as Nicole Scherzinger, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Rihanna herself. We felt these are some of the bestselling female artists this year and have been big names in today’s music and so they were good models to help develop our ideas.

With regard to the digi-pack work we have produced a Digi-pack front and back cover for the song ‘Fire bomb’ we have also made an inside sleeve and a A4 poster.

Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

As a group we are pleased with the final products (above- figure 1, 2 and 3) and from our feedback we do feel that they look like a professional piece of artwork. Fire was always going to be a recurring theme throughout the project.

Looking at figure 1, we wanted to create a piece of work that was simple but effective, I think we have achieved this through the boldness of the fire and the plain black and white contrasting background to the writing. We tried to follow this through all of the Digi-pack work as it is bold, stands out and these are very important in making a product appeal to the audience.

On the front cover of the digi-pack shown as figure 2 we chose to use a very basic background because it complimented the picture well and allowed the fire and text to stand out. The picture has been very well edited and is of the artist which makes it very conventional as most artists are photo-shopped to enhance features to produce an image that will sell better. The body is covered in lyrics of the song, this was not in our initial idea which we drafted but after editing we decided as a group we wanted to add in.

We were influenced by Lady Gaga’s artwork for her single ‘Alejandro’. The cover is focused on one main picture with bold red writing in front of a plain white background. This has a similar layout to our cover and I think this is a very professional look and works very well. Our work compared to artists such as Lady Gaga who have professional photographers and people to make her album covers I think our work does compare well. In today’s music industry I think our product would meet the same target audience that Lady Gaga aims for.

We looked at Cheryl Cole’s front cover and they style of writing and tried to adapt this to use in our work and it looks really professional. Also the use of fire helps to bring the theme into the digi-pack work. The production on the A4 poster is what our group found the hardest and it was the background of fire we found very difficult to use. This is because it made it very difficult to use any writing over it. However we managed to design our own font and to customise our colour of writing and managed to produce a very strong poster which I feel would be very suitable with our target audience.

I love the simplicity of the back cover of our Digi-pack. The hand is continuous from the front cover and comes round elegantly with the same writing all over her skin and then placed in her hand is a ball of fire. Again the fire ties in with the tittle of the song (Fire Bomb) and the lyrics, and finally the A4 poster.

Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Figure 3 is the A4 magazine advert, this is our most experimental piece of work and a lot of thought went into designing and creating it. As it is designed for a magazine, the image and text has to be memorable to the audience otherwise it hasn’t fulfilled its role. This advert needs to sell the product so we created a bold and unique poster.

When looking at Rihanna’s magazine advert you could say that it wasn’t particularly striking or memorable (see figure 4). When looking at Lady Gaga’s magazine advert you are drawn to the image, the use of colour and pose makes the advert stand out (see figure 5). Figure 6 is the magazine advert we created to promote our product. We asked our audience for feedback and they felt the advert was bold, exciting, interesting and different. This was our initial aim as we wanted it to stand out from other adverts.

Looking back at the comments we got back from our audience off facebook, the majority of it is very positive. Comments such as:

‘Wow loved the video, all looks very professional’.

‘Stunning performance, can’t believe this was made on a low budget’.

‘Would love to see more videos like this, the locations, props and artist all look great’.

‘All the Digi-pack art work looks amazing, all the tattoos look great and I like how fire is in all the work’.

These gave us lots of confidence that our product would be successful and I agree with all the comments, our efforts have paid off and I think the product is very good.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Our target audience consisted of females between the ages of 15 and 22 and mainly people of white ethnicity. We used creative costumes for our performance scenes with four costume changes in the music video and two everyday outfits which we all felt looked good, where fashionable and would relate to the target audience. Target audience feedback revealed that people liked that the artist was young and that they could relate to her through the story line. Also people found the narrative very realistic which was very positive feedback. As a group, we chose to make this our target audience because we are all young and felt that we had a good understanding of this age group.

When we originally started the project we carried out a brief survey of 80 people which largely consisted of 15-22 year olds. We always intended to meet this potential audience’s expectations of a music video, and the feedback we gained from the questionnaires enabled us to construct some initial plans as to what kind of direction we wanted to take out video.

Our digi-pack included everything relevant to the overall product which followed the theme of fire. I feel it has everything that all the other digi-packs released recently in the same genre have.

The colour scheme is used throughout with red and black being very bold in all our artwork and fire being the predominate image which has helped to establish the theme of fire.

Although our feedback was generally positive, we were given constructive criticism on some aspects. One issue brought up was that there was no fire in the music video even though we have made fire a continuous theme in the project. If we were given a chance to alter our video now that we have this feedback, I would consider this as an idea that could be used. We could include fire in the performance scene and have it in the background. We did however use an effect that we feel kept to the theme of fire in all the performance scenes.

Another piece of negative feedback was that the fast paced narrative was slightly confusing. Two people in our survey said they didn’t understand the storyline. I feel that the story line is not complex and I don’t feel that any changes are necessary as only a small proportion of people said this.

In our music video, we have followed the conventional concept of romance and conflict. It is very conventional to have a narrative in a music video but we have challenged this by producing a video with a narrative as well as a performance. This we feel was a more successful combination from our research into successful music videos on YouTube and on social networking sites. The image shows the young couple kissing; this is a feature in many R ‘n’ B music videos.

We feel that the majority of our audience feedback is positive and we believe that we met the expectations of our target audience that were revealed in the questionnaires we did right back at the start of the project.

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

As a whole group everyone used multiple technologies during this piece of coursework. In all stages of the project our group was building on our basic knowledge and so personally I found the whole project a big learning curve. Skills I have learnt in the past year will stay with me forever and in the future may become useful once again. Throughout the coursework I found some things came very naturally such as filming which I really enjoyed and others not so easy such as creating an interactive blog and so I had to work harder and longer on these tasks.

For the research and planning stages, search engines and social networking sites were a huge factor and a big help in how accessible information was. Collection and backing up the research and finding out information was made more convenient by the access we had to Google and the sharing of our information through the internet and by email between our group members helped us to stay on track and up to date with the schedule.

Production work includes all the filming using the camera equipment. This year we used a Canon DM-XM2 which is a very lightweight and portable camera and I found it very easy to use and feel that filming came very naturally to me and I enjoyed it. We were give two different sizes of lights which we found very useful as some of the locations were very dark and small. When filming the performance scenes we used a green screen, the camera and a variety of lights to make sure the conditions were perfect.

Green screen was at first very complicated and we had to plan our scenes beforehand to make sure all the lights were in the correct place and that the scene was going to work when we came to edit. Looking back at the time we spent filming in front of the green screen I really enjoyed it, it was a new experience for everyone in our group and we were given the chance to be very creative.

Overall the camera equipment was very similar to the equipment we used in our AS year at Harrow College so we could bring forward our knowledge that we already had and any mistakes we made in the past meant we were more confident to do it right the second time round, so as a group we felt like we had a second chance. This gave us a greater understanding of how to start our filming and we had the basic knowledge.

Post production: Editing facilities, Adobe CS4 Photoshop and InDesign DTP software Problems and outcomes of using Photoshop these software applications were the most complex and required us to spend long periods of time to make a successful music video. The Adobe Photoshop programme also took great amounts of time to produce an image that we set out to create. As a group we were limited to what we could produce as our skills with this software were limited whereas our imaginations were not bound by any restrictions. I was not the main editor of the Digi-pack work as Hitesh took most of the responsibility, however I feel I did allot of work with him, learnt new skills from him and have improved my knowledge.

Final cut pro was the programme we used to edit our music video, I feel this is year I was very confident. In my AS year at Harrow College I picked up very key skills and was able to transfer them into my coursework this year. I was a key player in the editing of our music video we

produced.

Blogging on http:// www.blogger.com is a very simple blog website which we have been using to post all our coursework. I found it very easy to understand and use, however initially I did struggle to produce an interactive style blog which we were required to do. In my group we had a mixed range of abilities and one group member struggled with blogging so as a group we did learn a lot. I believe that my skills in this area have greatly improved.

I am very pleased with my own contribution to the project and feel as a group we worked well to make a music video. Overall the project I believe is a success, and I am happy with the final pieces of work. There have been both positive and negative feedback on our music video but overall the feedback and comments have been favourable. Finally I feel I have learnt a great deal and as a group it has definitely been a learning curve for us all and we have helped each other to produce the best piece of work we could have.