1. A2 Media Music Video EvaluationBy Rebecca Wilson

2. Contents Introduction In what ways does your media product use, developor challenge forms and conventions of real mediaproducts? How effective is the combination of your mainproduct and ancillary texts? What have you learned from your audiencefeedback? 3. Introduction This is my evaluation to my A2 music media coursework, I haveenjoyed doing this music video because it has challenged my skills Iachieved last year, by pushing them even further this year, becausethis is something I have never had a chance of doing before so it willbe very much a learning experience. I am expecting to gainknowledge and new skills in editing and researching. Because I havequite a mixed group with a various skills and taste, we should beable to reach more people by combining our skills to create a bettermusic video. I liked that we had to put all our work onto a blog,because that way it made it easier to track our progress and to keepall of our work in one place, it also made it easier not to loose work.I really enjoyed this project as a whole, but the part I most enjoyedwas the editing of the video, because in my future career ithopefully will evolve editing, and I did find it a challenge at first toget the hang of it, yet it was beneficial because of what I did learnfrom it. 4. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challengeforms and conventions of real media products? In our music video we kept to most of the conventions of a real musicvideo by having a running narrative where the actress mimed along to themusic, keeping the narrative running and relating to the storyline we have.Also we stuck to the codes and conventions when we did the Digipak andadvert making them relate to one another, which is what artists do when theyadvertise a new CD, so by doing this it will make it easier to spot our producton the market after seeing the advert because then the audience know whatthey are looking for. We also did a photo shoot for the main photographs yousee on the Digipak, this is so it is obvious what we are advertising and who weare advertising, we also went for the less is more approach. Which is whatKaty Perry did with Hot n Cold and I Kissed a Girl so by repeating thisdesign and by keeping to some of her conventions such as the big bubblywriting, it will make it clear who are work is for and representing. 5. We used very basic camera work, to simply follow the story and thecharacters through different scenes, we decided to do this becausein Katy Perrys music videos usually she has very simple cameramovements, maybe a few pans and a dolly cam, but nothing toextreme, so we also wanted to keep our music video in a way toresemble hers also we wouldnt of been able to do anything overthe top because we didnt have the access to that equipment. Thescenes walking through the park, we decided to do walking with thecharacters and not a steady cam because when you are walking itsnot all smooth, and also it was to show the ups and downs in arelationship that it isnt all smooth and easy, so by doing this andadding the roughness back into the video it should seem moredown to earth and relatable, which is what we what our musicvideo to be. We found out what camera work Katy Perrys musicvideos normally use by the research we did watching her musicvideos, and we also found that she does not only obviously sing thesong but she also does the narrative throughout by miming andalso is the main actress in her videos so she is very involvedthroughout all the stages and we did this by in our video, having thevideo revolve around our main actress and that in the photo shootit all revolved around her. So the simplicity of the video showedmore of the actress off just as Katy Perry does in her adverts. 6. Editing is the part I most enjoyed with this music video because theediting with the Digipak and advert was very simple as we alreadyhad the designs laid out and all we had to do was insert the images.For the editing of the music video first we put it all into block, suchas all the park scene on the round about was together, all thewalking in the woods, the throwing leaves was all together, so itwas just blocks of footage which went on too long. When wewatched it back we realised it didnt meet the conventions KatyPerry used where the scenes we more jumpy, still relating to thestory but they werent as fixed. So we changed our video so it wasmore mixed, and so the shots where shorter, and realised thisversion met the conventions of Katy Perrys music videos more sowe used this as our final video. If we had more time I would ofcompletely mixed up the music video and the scenes so theyjumped around a lot more, to see if this looked better, because wehad the option of doing this because our video is based on an ideaof a dream and dreams tend to jump around a lot and not makemuch sense, so that could have also worked. Yet I am pleased withour finished result. 7. Mise-en-scene for the Digipak and advert was very simple because for thephoto shoot the props we used was simply a chair so the actress could beshoot in different positions providing various shoots and angles to choosefrom. The locations we used for the shoot as well was a photo studiowhich we chose because it would provide the right lighting andbackground to concentrate on our main actress with. Our locations in themusic video were chosen because they we easily accessible and indistance of each other so we would not waste time travelling. Alsobecause they added to the over all effect of the music video for examplethe walking through the woods is something people do for an adventurousthing and the sun gleaming through the trees made it quite mystical andunreal, like a dream, also we chose these locations because they would bea quiet environment to shoot in, so we wouldnt get disturbed by peoplewalking through our shoots or staring at the camera. We didnt use anyextra props in the music video which made it easier to get from location tolocation as we didnt need to carry anything. In Katy Perrys music videosshe does use over the top props but we would be unable to access themfor our video in time, and also any over the top props might not of workedwith the main idea with our video. The only thing I would change if wewhere to do the video again would be the actresses look, because it is avery modern look which could help attract a wider audience but it was nottotally Katy Perry, it was more Katy Perry with a teenage twist which hasmade our music video unique, but if we were to do it again it would benice to see if the costume made any difference to the finished product. 8. The performance element of the music video was very easy as our actorswere comfortable with each other and listened to instructions well, andwere willing and very out going. Which did make our whole video a loteasier to produce. We included the narrative were our main actressmimed along to the chorus, we only had her mime the chorus becausefrom our primary research we found out people find the storyline moreimportant than footage of the band and just the singer. We did shoot theperformance scenes a few times so we had enough footage to choosefrom and so we had extra bits if there were any mistakes or bloopers.We needed our actors to appear natural because that is how Katy Perryappears in her videos, the level of acting is important because in hermusic video of Teenage Dream it is like she really is with the guy and thatthey are very close and so we tried to show that through our music videoas well, hoping that will come across. Because we believe our narrativeand our acting did compliment each other well it should help produce agood final piece, by being able to see the chemistry and the enjoymentour actors had toward each other while shooting our music video. Therewasnt much performance needed when we did the photo shoot as itjust required us to direct our actress how to act and produce Katy Perrystyle poses, at first after the initial awkwardness and after we got thehang of the shoot it was easy to take to photos and to direct our actress. 9. The layout of our 6 panel Digipak follows the normalconventions for a Digipak by having the CD and DVD on theinside and then some writing either lyrics of songinformation on the out side and the middle, each panelhaving a photograph. This is the usual style for Digipak toadvertise and to explain what they contain, we also used acolour scheme to relate to our audience which is pink,because that stereotypically is a colour in which all girlslike, and a colour that Katy Perry regularly includes in allher campaigns, writing and music videos, so by using thiscolour it will make our product recognisable to ouraudience. On our advert we changed the colour scheme toa blue, keeping the images the same to relate to theDigipak and keeping the writing and style the same torelate to the Katy Perry style. 10. The font we had to use throughout this projecthad to include Katy Perrys style, which isntnormally found on word, so we had to go ontothe internet to find it to use. This is because it isKaty Perrys signature writing, and that you canusually recognise her products by this style ofwriting so it was very important we found andused it where ever we had to write her name, orthe name of her songs. 11. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? I believe our products as a whole are very effective as theycover all the different media levels, because we have ourmusic video on YouTube and Katy Perry fan sites, to attractattention and popularity to our music video, the idea beingthat they will give feedback on it. So we will know if wehave reached our target audience successfully. Alsobecause our advert can be put into a magazine that iscovering another range of the media, and by putting it intoa magazine which we believe will be popular with ourtarget audience, it will attract a lot more attention to ourmusic video. Our Digipak and advert relate to the musicvideo because they are focused on our main actress, and insome of the photos she is having fun and being quite livelylike she was in the music video, so that links them. This yearit has been easier to reach our target market than last yearbecause we can go onto fan sites dedicated to Katy Perry. Ibelieve our advert works very well to promote our albumbecause it states where you can buy it iTunes. 12. A way we could have made our Digipak and advert more relating tothe music videos would have been if we took pictures whilst wewere filming or took print screens of the video. We didnt do thisbecause when we were filming we came up against difficultieswhilst filming with the weather and transport, so we were morefocused on getting the video done. When we tried to take screenshoots from the music video they either came out blurred or theexpression or the position of the actors wasnt quite right. So wethought a photo shoot would be more appropriate as Katy Perryhas previously done this. 13. What have you learned from your audience feedback?Questionnaire What do you think the best storyline for a music video are?How old are you?Love story1-11Action12-15 Crime16-19 No story line just musicOther____________________________________________20+What do you think is more important in a music videoWhat gender?storyline or footage of the band?MaleStorylineFemaleBand Do you prefer faster editing or slower or medium?How often do you watch music videos? FastEvery dayMediumEvery other daySlowOnce a weekDont mind OtherOther___________________________________________How often do you watch music videos about Katy Perry?Every dayEvery other dayOnce a weekOther___________________________________________ 14. So from this questionnaire we have found outthat our target audience are majority agedbetween 16-19 and female. Watch a music videoonce a week, and watch a music video with KatyPerry in every few weeks. The storyline thatproved to be the most popular was a love storywhich is what we will try and make our musicvideo involve because Katy Perrys most popularmusic videos involve a love story anyway, whichhelps us out by being able to see how sheportrays a love story, and that most people thinkstorylines are more important than the actualfootage of the band, so we will make sure ourstoryline is quite dominate in our video. And thatmost people dont mind how fast the editing in amusic video is. 15. After the music video had been made I interviewed a Katy Perry fan I know (India), to see what heropinion was on the music video. Because I realised that she is our target audience so her opinionon the music video is very important, to see if she approves of it. Do you think the storyline fits well with the song? Why?Yes I do because the main focus is a dream and I like how it is in black and white when she is alone andcolour when she is with her dream man. I also like it at the end when she bumps into him and it turns tocolour. Its an awwwwwwwwww kind of story. Do you think the transitions work well or not? Why?Yes I think they work well. I like the bit in the wood where they are walking along and it cuts to the sameplace throwing leaves at each other. I love the part when she opens the curtains and the it slows downwith the music, really effective.What do you think of the juxtaposition with the realty in black and white and the dream in colour? Do you think it works? Why?I really like it and think it works a lot because if it was all in colour or black and white that would bereally confusing to distinguish which is which. What would you do different if you could?I probably would not change anything. I love how the acting is completely natural with Freya and Scott. Do you enjoy the video overall? How many marks out of five would you give it?Yes I did enjoy the video, I think it is really cute story and I would give it 4 out of 5. 16. From the feedback I received India said the blackand white, and colour was a good way to statethe difference between the dream and reality,because I didnt tell her anything about the musicvideo before she watched it because I didnt wantto influence her decisions or opinions on it. Alsothe transitions work well and arent to over thetop because they simply are moving from eachscene. Also the naturalness of Freya and Scottsrelationship came through in the media videobecause India says it does look natural. 17. We also posted our music video onto YouTubeand fan sites to receive feedback and to seehow much popularity/hits our video got. 18. How did you use new media technologies in theconstruction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Technologies we used in this project, most didnt even exist 10years ago for example we posted our finished music video onYouTube (a worldwide video viewing site) and Facebook (aworldwide social networking site), we used these sites topromote our music video and to receive feedback to see howwell the video was received. By putting our music video ontoa Katy Perry fan blogging site, we would one reach our targetaudience. To make better use of this resource would be if weuploaded our music earlier to the YouTube and other bloggingsites, by doing this we would have longer to receive feedbackfrom our target audience, which then would help us find out ifour music video is approved by our target audience, to see if itwas successful or to see about any altercations we shouldmake. 19. The hardware we used was very basic as we only required a videocamera and a tripod for filming, computers for the editing anduploading the video to the internet and keeping our blogs up todate, and mobile phones for communication. Each of thesetechnologies was very much required, the video camera wasnecessary for the filming and the tripod was needed to keep theshots still and steady, to give a smoother video. Without being ableto edit our videos, the video would not of worked as the scenes wein the incorrect order and it provided us with a freedom to shoot ascene multiple times to make sure we had it correct, also so wecould change the scenes around willingly to give different effects tothe video. And mobiles we handy when we came up against issuessuch as problems with transport and finding where about our actorswhere. Wikipedia was very useful in finding out information aboutKaty Perry, her music and her inspiration, even though Wikipedia isonly 9 years old, we used other sites to find out this informationalso because Wikipedia is a wiki which means anyone can alter it, sothe information on it cannot be fully trusted sometimes, yet it wasa big help with our project. 20. I liked this transition because it is the first timewe go into the dream, and switch to colour. 21. I also think the difference between colour and black & white, was very importantin this video, because it shows the difference between the dream and reality quiteclearly. By the dream being in colour it highlights her emotions toward the guy,displaying how happy with him she is, and then when she is without him it goes toblack and white showing how her world is dull and how unhappy she is withouthim. So when it finally turns back to colour in the end it is a very clich ending,showing how her dream came true.