Evaluation- Q4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We have watched our music videos and have given each other feedback as audiences. I have received comments such as "good location" and "good weather conditions - sunny weather", the sunny weather is conventional for my music genre as its lively and colourful as its pop. I have also used close up which the audience thought connected with the audience as there is eye contact and the artist sings at the camera aiming at the audience. 

My aim was to use one of the aspects of Andrew Godwin's theory - amplification, which the audience has said "amplification - dancing, smiling and close ups" and a comment from a student " I like how it focuses on her a lot and how the boy is excluded.", this shows that i have managed to tell a story within the video, i have told a story which relates to the lyrics although its not exactly linking to the lyrics.

From the feedback from the audience i can see that i have used good camera shots and successfully managed to tell a story within my video as the audience clearly understood the story and managed to link it with the actual song. Another student said "mise en scene links to the meaning of the song 'smile' as well as the blue sky and the colourful dress", I can see that the weather and the costumes i have chosen fit my genre and got my audiences attention.

As I looked at the real video clip i saw that we used only one location outside as the real video was taken outside and in the house. |Although we didn't take any clips indoors i think that the location outside was effective as it was a sunny day which fit the conventions of the genre for Lily Allen's music video. Before the music videos were viewed for feedback I thought it would of been a better result if i used another location indoors but from the audience feedback i can see that the location outdoors was effective as they said that the weather and the location fits the genre of my music video.

Evaluation Question 1

Our music video differs from its original as the original video contains illustration where the narrative is told where as our video is amplification as we introduce new meanings in our video. 


What influenced us from the original video was the ending as it ended with the artist smiling/ laughing. We have also included this in our video ending as it works very well with the song.  

We were also influenced by a different video of Lily Allen - LDN. In the video, the artist is clearly walking and dancing around in the street happily. This has worked very well in our video as the artist danced around the boy facing down on him. This expressed her strength and happiness, as the song was lively. 

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Other videos that we were influenced by where Kate Nash- foundation, the part that influenced us was when she was singing directly into the camera with a close up on her face.  We have included this in our video, as it is a very effective way of expressing expression. In our video, Meltem, our artist sings directly in the camera from a low angle shot with an extreme close up on her face.  This was one of our best footage as it clearly showed her confidence and strength. 

Another video that influenced us was also from Kate Nash -Pumpkin Soup - which started off with the change of different footage with the beat of the song. Our video also starts of with various different shots, which change with the beat of the intro of the song.  

While producing our music video, we have tried to stick with Andrew Goodwin’s theory of pop music videos. The parts of the theory we have covered are 'Pop video uses the singer as both narrator and as the character '.  We have chosen our artist to be the main character as our video comes under amplification. We have also used his point of  'The singer often looks directly at the camera - which is an extension of (music hall) performance and an attempt to involve the viewer at home with the performance'. In our video the artist has good eye contact with the camera and to the audience. This shows the confidence and strength of our artist.

We have clearly shown the sexuality of our artist as she wears a beautiful summery dress, which brings her sexuality forward. However this is used to show the theme of the song 'happiness' rather then to please men, as there is not other footage of her sexuality brought forward.

Evaluation- Q3. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages?

I have used many media technologies in the stages of construction and research, planing and evaluation which helped me gain more information and gain a wider understanding of how media products were produced. 

In the making of my music video and the lip sync tutorial, we have used brand new state of the art video cameras and memory cards in order to film our product. I have used the memory cards to save my work and transfer them from the video cameras to my hard drive in order to work on them on the macs. 

I have used blogger to blog all the work i have done including the research, planning and evaluation. I have presented my work and information on my blogs in writing, images and videos to make it more creative. Blogger was like an online diary as it helped me to keep up to date with my research, planing and evaluation. as everything i did and worked on was recored on my blog.

Another part of media technology I have used is internet for research purposes, I have done many researches such as looking at real music videos and gathering information such as artists their production companies. This helped me to easily see examples of real media products. I have searches for examples such as digipacks, images of Lily Allen, genre types and ect.

I have used photoshop and Quark xpres for the construction of my ancillary products. Photoshop was used to makes my advert for my music video. I have used many tools suck as the 'lasso tool' to cut around the images that I have picked to use on my advert and the digipack. I have used Quark to make my digipack as the digipack templates were on Quark, although I used Quark to finish my digipack with font and effects, I also used photoshop as there weren't any tools to edit images such as the 'lasso tool' thats I have used in photoshop.

I have also used another programme which was Final Cut Pro for editing my music video as I to cut the clips with the razor tool in order to keep the lyrics on track with the movements and lip sync the clips we have taken.

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?

Main product video

My main product and the ancillary text (digipack and advertisement) links to my main product as the photos that i have used is from the main video it self. The audience can clearly see the link between them as the mise en scene and the costumes are the same. the combination between the images are very strong and helps the audience to relate the video and the ancillary texts to each other, which also helps them to easily figure out that they are both for the same album.



  


Digipack

The image i have used for both the front cover and the back cover is similar as the artist has the same costume, hair and make up. This helps the audience to relate to the the video and the digipack which will help them to recognise both of them when they see it anywhere. The photos have been taken after the shots were recorded so that we can get the same effect on both the videos and the cd covers.

Advertisement  

The advert i have made also relates to both the video and the digipack as i have used the same image as the front cover image of the digipack, so the product and the ancillary texts i have made all use images of  similar types as they have the same costumes, make up and the same hair style. the lightning of all the photos are the same to create the same type of effect. The images i have used relate to the real media product of Lily Allen as her photos are also taken to show herself out and look kind out funky.

Evaluation Question 4: What have you learnt from your audience feedback

Above shows my groups music video embedded from vimeo including audience ratings ( how many people have watched your video) which is the same video which we watched in the cinema in which the audience reacted positively to. Below shows some recorded vox pops feedback from the audience:

The three people that have given interviews were within my target audience for my music video which is aimed at young girls. All of the feedback I've received was positive towards our music video but the three people have also commented on what I could do to improve. Furthermore I have learnt that in order to do a much video with that certain genre, the artist should look more into the camera for a better effect. Also as much as the wide shots were good in our video, there should have been more tight close ups to really interact with the artist. The most important thing i've learnt is that some shots were static meaning they might have looked unrealistic along some parts being out of synch which if I come across lip synch problems again I know two double check next time. 

Evaluation-Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our music video, the music from Lily Allen Smile, has the five key aspects of music videos. We have created a meaning to the video clip which tells a story but doesn't always link to the lyrics of the song. We have taken clear shots showing the key star in the music video which is one of the key aspects of Andrew Godwin's theory, just like the original music video by Lily Allen. Although our music video tells a story like the real music video, it doesn't exactly relate to the lyrics which is called amplification, but it tell a story relating to the lyrics.



This is an example of two shots from both videos showing the key actor using close up which is conventions of music videos. the close up establishes the artist as it creates a relationship with the viewer as they get to know the artist closer and it gives a feel as if they are with the artist.





These two shots are similar as they present the other people in the video which are within the music video. These two shots show the audience that the two males are alone and hey have just been left by their girlfriends, This establishes the story in the music video to the audience.





We have filmed couple of shots showing the two artists, singer and her boyfriend, together which relates to the story of the breakup. We have used this type of shot similar to the real media product of Lily Allen's music video creating a story linking the lyrics.


I have used many conventions of real music videos, as i have used a young pretty female which fits in the conventions of the genre as she is fit, happy, joyful, lively and also getting revenge from her ex-boyfriend as most teenage girls do, this helps the young female audiences to relate to the video.

Evaluation Question 3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During the course of my project I have used and experimented with a range of media technologies for each project stage including research, planing and evaluation. Bellow show some pictures of what we used.

ITEMS USED FOR FILMING

The tripod was used to keep video camera steady, the battery was used to give power to video camera and video camera was used to film.

Memory cards used to save our video and picture content to use on the MACs.

Still camera used to take location shots etc for digipak and advertisement. 

ITEMS USED FOR EDITING

MAC used for everything (heart of the project) for editing, digipak and advertisement.

Hardrive and SD card converter used to transfer data via USB from still/video camera to MAC. 

This shows my digpak being edited on Photoshop elements 4 in which I used several layers and effects to compose with the magic wand tool. 

I used the QuarkXPress picture frame tool to piece together my digipak pictures after editing the pictures on Photoshop Elements 4.

We used final cut pro but differently to editing the thriller video, because we used a razor tool to keep the video in synch.  

ITEMS USED FOR FINAL STAGES

Google and Youtube used by typing in the artists name and song in the search box for research, and blogger used as a digital dairy to record my progress. 

Vimeo used to upload final video for people to see and give feedback.

Screen on the green was the cinema used to view my final video to everybody to receive feedback and comments.

HERE IS OUR DIGITAL STORYBOARD VIDEO


This is my digital storyboard which my group  used to help us while filming to know what to do in certain scenes.