In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Compared to professional work, the music video uses conventions of Diane Railton, and I have made the video to seem in a kind of narrative style, with the actions in the music video linking to the lyrics of the song. I wanted it to be obvious in the video that the girl was singing about the boy who features, making it clear that the black and white parts of the video are memories that she has had with him, and towards the end linking more to the lyrics as it is saying “maybe loves not what I expected, got to run, run, run to the nearest exist” and the girls actions in the video are showing she doesn’t want to be with him anymore, and is getting upset about the memories. This also means the music video links with ideas of Andrew Goodwin, as the videos lyrics and visuals sometimes have a direct link in the video, and it is also clear that there is a whole storyline within the music video.

When producing my music video I thought about the kind of style that would suit the song and wanted the visuals to represent the lyrics in an interesting way. I feel like my video can be compared to videos such as:Lana Del Rey – Video Games I feel using this style for the video feels more personal, and as the lyrics of the song are very personal I thought it would suit it well.

Target Audiences and Continuity of the band genre and imageThe track I chose was easy to define what types of audiences would be most interested in listening to the band. However, I wanted to be able to keep the video interesting to all audiences watching, and still be catchy to an audience that may not be as interested in the style of music. I feel using the different clips as if they are ‘home video’ brings a different interest in the video and makes the viewer want to see the rest of the story of the video.

How my media product contrasts to typical forms and conventionsThere are many factors of my video that are used in typical conventions of videos such as lip syncing, editing styles, mise-en-scene etc, however I feel I have used many different, quirky styles in the video that suit the artist and make the video original. The fact I have used a past and present tense in my music video I feel seems to make it stand out, and make the story more interesting and not just a typical girl and boy music video story. My video conveys the emotions of the character through performance and narrative and could be seen to appeal to a very broad audience because they can connect to the emotions of the character through the narrative of the song. Black and white parts of the video showing the past and emotions of the characters in the video.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?I wanted the DVD Digipak and print advert to have a similar style to the music video, and all tie in together so when the viewer sees it they know straight away who the artist is. While I was making the music video I had to think about the way the video would portray the artist so the promotion of the track would be effective in the promotion of the digipak. I tried to keep a certain brand identity, and had the same kind of font and colour scheme and type of photos for the digipak and promotional poster, to keep a clear house style through out so the viewer would know exactly who it was they were looking at. In both my digipak and promotional poster I used screenshots from the music video which could be said to be effective photos, and in the digipak I also had a few original images that were of the same setting as the music video to show a clear link in who the artist is. As the music video uses both black and white and colour imagery, I thought it would be effective to have a mix between black and white and colour photos in the DVD Digipak, but using an even amount of both styles of photos to make the digipak look “clean” and have a fresh look. I didn’t want to move away from using the similar imagery too much as I wanted to maintain a clear relationship between the Digipak, poster and music video to keep the artists identity clear.

Promotional PosterFor all of the pictures through out the promotional poster, Digipak booklet and second image on the Digipak, I used images where you could not see the face of the artist as I feel this would have an effect when seeing the face on the front cover of the Digipak. I have tried to keep a plain and simple yet effective style throughout, and I feel using this simple colour scheme draws attention to the poster.

DVD Digipak & Booklet I wanted the layout of my digipak to be quite original, and didn’t want it to seem too crowded, so kept the pictures quite simple and only the necessary text, so its not too overpowering of the images throughout the digipak. I also wanted to keep the booklet quite simple. For the digipak I used strong still images taken from the video so it was eye catching, and the style was still recognisable from the music video. I have stuck to the simple colour scheme also giving a clear link between the digipak, poster and booklet.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?I produced a questionnaire for my audience feedback using survey monkey, and the results from it were quite useful in finding out what range of people were more interested in the music video, and what kind of things the audience thought would have made it better and what I could have done to improved the music video. It also gave me information on what the audience thought of the links between the digipak, advert and music video, and if they thought it all suited as a whole style throughout. I also had people look at the music video, print advert and digipak and have them give me their opinion on it. Most of the responses I have got from both questionnaires have been positive ones, but also constructive criticism to help me realise what I could improve throughout the project.

I posted the video to a few people on Facebook and publicly on tumblr. I found that most of the viewers were female, however everyone who watched the video liked it and thought it captured the feeling of the lyrics.

Not everyone said they buy physical copies of CD’s and Digipaks, however they said the digipak advert and video would convince them to buy a physical copy of the digipak, and they look like they belong together, which I find a positive comment as it has been successful in making sure the three link together well.

These are just a few of the responses I got from the question, however these are the main kind of thing I got from most of the responses. I agree with the responses I got after watching the video, I feel maybe using a few different editing techniques and a few different locations of the flashbacks would have made the video more effective.

These are also the main kind of responses I got on this question, the main response being different photos, which I feel maybe I should have used more original photos on the digipak as well as the advert, giving the digipak more of a statement.

Considering the video has only been on YouTube for a month, I feel it got enough views and was pleased to see no dislikes on it. Comments from asking people personally“I like the format of the poster and digipak, I think they all have a clear style” Lydia Cole“The video has a nice style and you can see the emotion of the song in the actions of the people of the video” Rebecca Hunt“The images from the digipak and advert go well with the video, the people in the video never look out of place or like they feel weird doing the video and she suits the emotion of it well” Tom Law“I like the layout of the digipak and advert, you can see they are advertising the same thing. I think the images and text go well together and suit the actual music video” Ottilie Rounce

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?Planning: I had many different ideas for my music video when planning, a lot of which didn’t work. At first I wanted to use a series of images sped up, but unfortunately this did not go to plan. However just for testing I used a webcam movie maker to test the way this would work and did a short video and uploaded it to YouTube. I also then had other ideas for the video, which would involve using a series of different peoples faces and cutting them into one face. The technique I had to use for this would have been complicated to use for the whole video, and I feel the video would have been repetitive and not interesting to watch, and would not keep viewers enticed into the video. I feel that using the narrative story for the video was the best idea, as it was the thing that suited the song best.

Research: Before starting my video, I researched into the artist and the kind of style she portrayed, and also the kind of viewers I was aiming for, so I could show a kind of style in the video. I used Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube to research fashion of my target audience, and also research similar artists music videos to see the kind of indie style they portrayed. The style shown in the video is very “typical 18 year old girl and boy” style, which I feel suits it best as the song is the kind of thing that this age range can relate to. The artist had quite an indie style about her, so I tried to keep the locations simple but with effective colours as I feel this had a good impact on the video, to show the kind of places she would be interested in. Construction: I used the internet a lot whilst actually filming my video, YouTube came in handy when lip syncing the lyrics of the song, and to find the actual lyrics. I also did research into how to do some lighting techniques as I was shooting it in a home video styling, but still needed the lighting to look professional and effective. I had little knowledge on how to use the video camera and set it up properly before doing the music video, so had to research and test a lot into that before I could film the video so it looked professional quality. Websites used: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, SlideShare, Survey Monkey, YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, Jamendo, Google

Improvements I would Make From AS to A2 work, I feel I progressed well in terms of being able to use media equipment and resources. From making the music magazine in AS I was able to use Photoshop a lot quicker in making my Poster and DVD Digipak. If I had the chance to do the music video project again, I would have planned what I wanted to do with the video more in advance and use a lot more test footage to make sure I was certain of the idea I wanted to use. I also would have done more research into my target audience; although the feedback of the music video was good, I would take the criticisms into consideration, and agree that I would have used more locations, experimented with different styles in the video and different effects, lighting etc. as I feel I may have played it safe and used what I thought would make the video look its best, without testing different ideas before hand. However I am pleased with the video I produced, and I feel I conveyed the image of the artist and the song well .