Evaluation

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

     Firstly, before we could delve into deciding costume and location we had to select a song, which we did from a website called Jamendo. this website consisted of songs by unsugned artists, and it was here that we heard Allison Crowe's 'Lisa's Song.' As it was of the Pop genre, we knew that there were certain conventions that we would have to implement, especially since we had a specific target audience and wanted them to be able to relate to the music video and compare it to others.
     We then did a brainstornm of typical female Pop artists, *specifically Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis, Taylpr Swift, Cheryl Cole, etc) so that we could gather ideas on props, costume, make up and locations. We found that the conventions we would put in the music video were, a simple narrative that the audience would readily understamd, key locations such as a bedroom, and feminine outfits and make up to match the costume depending on the location. The one way we did subvert conventions was by not including a  male actor within the video, we felt that since this was Jessica York's debut single we wanted the sole focus on her and her varied emotions - we wanted to put across a strong positive image to females about Jessica and that she will heal over her broken relationship.
     Typical locations that we concluded had to be used within the video after observing female pop videos indiviidually and as a group, we decided that all the locations would be a bedroom, by the canal side, in front of a house, against a black backdrop, at a piano.
     Lastly, our actress Jessica was the key point of our music video, although she was a friend and we knew she was reliable, we wanted an image that would suit the voice of our song, and hers did! She also looks a little olde than eighteen which was perfect as the persona of Jessica York we had created was twenty.

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

     For us as a group it was important that we establish a link between the music video, the digipak and the magazine cover; and we did this through the use of similar coordinating colours, black, white and green, and through the representation of a scarf. Within the video Jessica does wear an outfit outdoors which includes a green scarf. We then took a photo of her on that day and used these particular images for the digipak and magazine ad so that the audience could recognise her as the same artist and form that link when deciding to buy the album.
     Regardless of the majority of music listeneres downloading songs from the internet, we wanted for our audience to buy the CD because when designing the digipak we added a special feature to draw the audience in. We wanted for them to support the artist by buying her album and to have a collectible because the special edition albums had a small puch within the digipak containing a signed photo of the artist with the lyrics of Lisa's Song on the back.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

     We had two sessions where the people of both media classes watched our music video and gace us some feedback; the first time they suggested we use a clearer photograph of Jessica and the 'boyfriend' and perhaps more meaningful items in the box, like cinema tickets or a love letter. After we had implemented this, they were much happier with the photograph and could undestand the narrative more clearly. Further, in regards to the ancillary task, they were easily able to establish the link between the video, the magazine ad and the digipak including the colour scheme. They suggested that the scarf however be a more vibrant green as the digipak seemed to be made of gloomy colours only.
      There was a clip within the music video that we had general disagreement over, half thought that the clip of Jessica lying on a stool in a park should be replaced as it looked questionable while the other half thought that it should remain, and so as a group we decided to keep that clip as it is very short and did fit with the conventions.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, plannig evaluation stages?

     When researching into the Pop genre, we used the internet as a main source to watch pop videos and to look at pictures of costume and what specific female artists wore, etc. We obtained photos and have a folder containing photos of our locations and potential costumes. After downloading the song and lyrics, we transferred them to our phones so that we could have a copy on us when filming so that we could play the song wile our actress sang along to it; plus we emailed the song to our actress so that she could learn the lyrics. We used an online website to create a 'wordle' of our lyrics which was used in the digipak also.
    When filming we always used two video cameras and had one peson in the group take stills so that we could luse them for reference and to note differences, also they were potential photos for the digipak and magazine ad. In relation to the ancillary tasks, we used Photoshop to create them, we did some of it at school while our Photoshop wizard within the group completed it at home.

Nilufa