Wednesday 4 January 2012

2012

MEDIA STUDIES IS THE BEST SUBJECT IN A LEVEL!!!! :D


R.I.P P.S SORRY BLOG

HUGE THANKS TO THIS GROUP AND MS P WHO IS A LEGEND!

POSTED BY, GUESS WHO :)

Sunday 3 April 2011

Evaluation By Sabina

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

Firstly, we selected a song, this was done from a website which called Jamendo. This website has songs that were sung by unsigned artists, and from this website we heard Allison Crowe's 'Lisa's Song.' as soon as we heard the song we all decided that this is going to be the song for our music video. Because we had a specific target audience and the song is from a pop genre, we knew that there were certain conventions that we would have to put in, because we wanted the audience to be able to relate to the music videos.

After we decided the song and were all happy, we did a brainstorm of a stereotypical female Pop artists, we focused on Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis, Taylor Swift, Cheryl Cole, etc). we did this so that our initial ideas would meet the conventions of a real pop media product. We specially focused on the above female artists, so that we could gather ideas on props, costume, make up and locations. In the music video we decided to concentrate on Jessica (our actress) and not on a guy. So we replaced the guy with a photograph to give the audience a better narrative and understanding of the music video. we also decided not to use a guy for the video, because we felt that since this was Jessica York's debut single we wanted the sole focus on her and her different emotions. Typical locations had to be used to follow the conventions of a pop music video. As a group, we decided that all the locations would include a bedroom, by the canal side, in front of a house, against a black backdrop, at a piano.

Although our actress Jessica 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 older than eighteen which was perfect, because the character of Jessica York that we had created was in her twenties.

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

As a group we decided that it was important that there is a link between the music video, the digipak and the magazine cover. We experimented with colours and photo shot a picture of Jessica in an Asda car park in front of a tree, this was for the magazine cover. The link between all three were the colours which were a combination of black, white and green. However we had a significant prop which was a green scarf, which Jessica is wearing in the picture used for the digital, magazine cover and in the music video. We did so that so the audience could recognise her as the same artist and form that link when deciding to buy the album.

Even though the majority of music listeners download songs from the internet, we wanted our audience to buy the CD because when designing the digipak we added a special feature to draw the audience in. We wanted them to support the artist by buying her album and to have a memorable piece that they could keep, we did this by having a signed photo of the artist with the lyrics of Lisa's Song on the back of the digipak.



What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We had different feedbacks and at different times. First we had one in the beginning when we chose our song. We asked the other media class to listen to our song and see what their reactions were. The second set of feedbacks were from looking at the blog. We decided to put up a poll on the blog along with a rough cut of our music video, people who visited the poll had to choose which hair they preferred meaning hair up or hair down, because we as a group couldn’t decide; it was half and half. The result was hair down and we went with our audiences feedback and the 4th  time we shot the piano scene.

The next feedback we got was after we finished our music video and it was the first viewing. The audience suggested that we should use a clearer photograph of Jessica and the 'boyfriend' and perhaps more meaningful items in the box, like cinema tickets or a love letter. We thought about this carefully and took another photo of the guy and Jessica this time making sure that the lighting was much better and we put cinema ticket and a letter. Then there was another audience feedback; they were much happier with the photograph and could understand the narrative more clearly.
Regarding the ancillary task, the audience were able to make a link between the video, the magazine advert and the digipak including the colour scheme. However they suggested that the scarf should be a more vibrant green as the digipak seemed to be made of gloomy colours only.

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

The internet was our main source of research, because we used the internet to search for our song. We also used the internet to research into the pop genre. We used youtube to watch pop videos and Google images to look at pictures of costume and what specific female artists wore, etc. We have gathered photos and have a folder containing photos of our locations and costumes. We also used Jamendo to download 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. In addition 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. For our costumes we surfed the internet, we visited websites such as Dorothy Perkins, New Look and Topshop to get the perfect look for our actress.

When filming we always used two video cameras; this was because we wanted to get as much footage as we could from different angles and shots. One person in the group take stills so that we could use them for photos for the digipak and magazine advert. We started the magazine advert in school and then Tamanna  took it home to finish, because she was more familiar with photo shot.

We also used blogger to put all our information and keep a track of what we had been doing every media lesson. This included research ideas to the days we would be filming. We also got our main feedbacks from the blog. We communicated with each other through Facebook and mobile phone as it was easy to access all members in our group.

Thursday 31 March 2011

Evaluation by Tamanna

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

To develop our own media product, our starter point was to choose a song which was copyright free therefore we visited Jamendo and browsed around for songs which differed to everyone else’s song type and the type of song we could work. This is when we came through with the song Lisa’s song by Allison Crow. The genre of this song was ‘POP’ as a result as a group we made a start via brainstorming our initial ideas of how we were going to meet the conventions of a real pop media product. So we brainstormed a few ideas of the iconography such as girl in her bedroom, piano and a male involved etc, conventions of location; bedroom, walking by a canal, conventions of costume; simple elegant black dress, casual jeans and tunic tops boots etc including makeup – subtle and neutral and rapid ideas of the camera shots for example, voyeurism through bedroom window, establishing shot and bird’s eye view of piano etc. These camera shots were all initial ideas, as we progressed some we used some we didn’t.
As well as all the above we had brainstormed we also thought of what type of video was it going to be? This led us individually researching pop videos; I had decided to look at Kelly Clarkson – Because of you. From this video the idea we had used for our media was the 'Black room/Black back drop' where Kelly’s singing to the camera, which I do believe engages the audience attention – it is also a typical convention as the audience may feel they are going through the same situation, for example hurt, torn into pieces due to their loved one’s leaving etc which would make sense to our narrative. As a result we chose to add the black backdrop idea to our video with Jessica singing into the camera.
In our media product, we had subverted the convention of using a male in our music video and replaced it through a picture of Jessica and her boyfriend to give the audience a better understanding and narrative of the media product. As a group we did this because we had decided since this is an emotional journey for a broken hearted women, we wanted Jessica to be the main focus so thinking out the box has helped us to challenge the conventions of a pop video as we found that Delta Goodrem – Lost without you which is a Pop genre had used a male in her video. Also the picture of Jessica and her boyfriend is torn into two pieces, which is shown in the media product to signify her reminiscing and looking back at the memories she had with her boyfriend. She also shows a box full of items such as – football t-shirt and gift box he gave her etc. this all gives you an idea that she misses her boyfriend and she’s holding on to his things because that’s the only memory she’s got at the moment.

In our video we had used several locations as I’ve seen they do this in pop videos location scouting is a vital process, as it is appealing to the audience as they don’t have to watch one location as you can imagine that’ll be boring, so therefore going on a location scouting ourselves, we found locations which formed conventions for a pop video such as bedroom – girly, canal – emotional, piano area – isolation , outside the house – passing time, black back drop – engaging to the audience  - expressing to move on with life, next to the tree – isolation and lonely and Thames barrier – walking through maze connoting her life’s a puzzle. These locations went well with the narrative, as the narrative is a linear narrative in the video, as it is about a young women reminiscing about her relationship with her boyfriend which she no longer is with. Looking at range of pop video’s that was a significant narrative in majority of pop videos, therefore we conformed to the typical narrative as our target audience could engage with and see our video as personal relationship.

In our music video the semiotics are found throughout the video, which creates meaning. As the actress is alone in through out different scenes having the actress always alone during the video signifies that she is alone, lonely and an emotional wreck.
Including voyeurism in our music video showed the vulnerability of our artist as she was always alone.
The 2 intertextuality we used in our music video are from two different artists, one intertextuality is from Kelly Clarkson’s video the black back drop which I’ve mentioned previously another is from Cheryl Cole’s video this was used at the end of the video were Jessica lights up a match stick in complete darkness which is also found in Cheryl Cole’s video.

Our actress named Jessica Harvey is best known as Jessica York on stage. I met Jessica through Nilufa as they are friends. The reason why we chose Jessica is because she conformed to the typical female artist you would see in pop videos for example you wouldn’t see a Bangladeshi girl in a pop video singing – that is very rare to be found. Jessica’s voice also suited the voice of Allison Crow watching back the video’s this was a big positive was for us as a team. Also the talent that lies behind Jessica was amazing, as she taught herself to play the piano with the tune of our song. This meant we could show our audience Jessica playing the piano which was great!   
Jessica also proved that she was well organised, managed her time, trustworthy and very reliable as she had attended all the shooting schedules including over the holidays.
Jessica’s appearance had conformed to the age category we had put down for Jessica York’s profile, which was age 23, which she looked when she was dressed and dolled up which was a huge advantage for us as she is only 18. However she looked older than her age when she had her hair and make up done which would be appealing to a broad audience.

Taking on board all the above information, to connect this to our ancillary tasks, during the filming process there were always 2 of the team members with a digital camera to take several pictures of Jessica so we could select the appropriate pictures to go on the ancillary tasks. The ancillary tasks are to create a magazine advert and a digipak.


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

On the magazine advert the branding we have chosen for our main product is Asda.
As a group we choose this carefully as we wanted our Artist to be recognised therefore by selecting Asda it will give us the opportunity to gain a broader audience and may appeal to them. Another reason is because Asda supermarkets are were our target audience could be browsing during their shopping and come across this artist. We also didn’t want to throw her in the mainstream world (such as HMV) straight away as we wanted her to be recognised gradually by a niche audience so she can be successful rather than challenging herself with the mainstream retailers.

The star construction of Jessica York through our main product and ancillary task would definitely be her significant green scarf which is shown through our music video – which she wears in the canal scene, therefore as a group we decided on the pictures which were taken during the shooting to have a image of Jessica with her green scarf for the magazine advert and digipak so she will be easily recognised by the audience and can be linked to the music video. Jessica’s green scarf was a representation of herself throughout the main product and ancillary texts, we’d also hope for it to be an iconography of Jessica and straightforward for the audiences to buy from Asda supermarket.

For our digipak this offers the consumers to gain something more close to the artist rather than downloading it of the internet and storing it on their MP3 which has no real connection and at  risk of corruption and can easily be lost.
By buying the digipak it also offers the audience to have a collection – as this is much more satisfying than free downloading.
The consumer will also find the CD has better sound quality than MP3!!!
Also not to forget that buying the digipak also gives the audience the opportunity to be opt in with the bonus material with the CD for example in our Digipak we have offered to give out a signed poster of Jessica York to add the ‘precious’ touch to it.
Another reason to have a digipak nowadays is because if you meet celebrities you can’t get your Mp3 signed now can you? So therefore if you have a digipak you’re likely to get a signed CD. :)

I would expect my audience to come across Jessica York by noticing the magazine advert firstly and then possibly buying the digipak. I’d also like them to come across it through the internet and social networks such as Youtube, Myspace and Facebook…etc. Also another way for them to find out more about Jessica York would be by visiting her URL which is found on the magazine advert.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Well to start off, we received feedback at different times as it was vital we conformed to the pop conventions also we followed the expectations from our audiences.
The first time we obtained audience feedback was from the other media class, which was on the selected choice of song we choose to do for our music video. The reason why we did this was to see the expectations of how our music video would have to be like and whether we needed to add things on to our initial ideas.

There then was a rough cut of our music video on our blog which we found the piano section not as appealing as we wanted as her hair was fizzy and the make up wasn’t as glamorous as we wanted it to be so therefore we chose to re-shoot that section.  
So this time we had her hair up and more silver eye shadow however the feedback we received from Ms Pollard was that her eyes stood out way too much and it wasn’t appealing! So therefore we chose to use our blog because we couldn’t decide whether it looked appealing to our audience with her hair up or down.
 This is were I set up a poll and asked the question “Rough Footage - Piano scene which take is better 1 or 2”
As a result it was hair down that took on the lead therefore we conformed the our audiences feedback and on the 4th shoot we had her hair down and did her make up a lot lighter and went subtle with the silver eye shadow.

There then was another audience feedback on our Music video which was towards the end of our project, we had followed the other feedback which had helped us greatly during the process of making the video and conforming to Pop videos.
This time round the feedback we received was that we needed to use a clearer photograph of Jessica and her boyfriend as we had a photograph that was too dark to be seen in the video plus Jessica was in a different outfit and was wearing glasses however we never see that side during the video therefore it confused the audiences and the narrative slightly.
We were also suggested to include more significant items around the picture for example, cinema tickets or a love note etc.  Once we had taken the feedback on board and applied it to our music video our audience were much impress and could understand the narrative with the clear photograph of Jessica and her ‘boyfriend’.

Towards the end of the video, there was a clip where Jessica’s lying back down on a gravel, we had a half – half disagreement from the audience, one half thought it didn’t make sense and asking why is she just lying there however  the other half who said it had conformed to the idea of her emotional wreck and it went with the flow of the song, so as a group we decided to keep it in as it was towards the end and through out the video you see Jessica and her emotions building up however that clip was to express her letting go.
We had also received feedback for our ancillary task, we were asked to brighten the green scarf as it’s a representation of Jessica York and is significant!

 Overall we received very helpful advice, which we appreciated through out the process.


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

To begin we used the internet to search for our choice of song which was found on Jamendo as mentioned previously. We downloaded the song off the website to our Mac and transferred it to everyone’s phone, this was handy during the shoots as we would play the song on our phones and engage with the singing with Jessica for moral support and boost her confidence as she would be actually singing which helps greatly when editing.
For our research we also used ‘Youtube’ to observe the pop videos as mentioned at the beginning.
The internet played a huge role in our research as we obtained images from Google for our Digipak ideas and analysed them on our Blog. We used Blogger to store our information and a log of what we had been doing every media lesson this also included research ideas to the days we would be filming. This was very useful as we could reflect back to the work at later stages for example, this very moment looking back at our blog has helped me to evaluate my work better as I would’ve forgot to mention bits and bobs.
To communicate with each other we did this through Facebook and mobile phone as it was easy to access all members in our group.
 We’d also surf the internet for the latest fashion in clothes for our actress,, we’d visited websites such as Dorothy Perkins, New Look and Topshop as these are typical websites girls get on to shop.
We also used ‘Wordle’ for the lyrics which we developed it to our digipak for the right hand panel inside.
Adding to our ancillary task, we had used Photoshop to produce our Magazine advert and Digipak. The images were primary source obviously of our actress which we had taken during the process of filming…
Not forgetting we had used 2 video cameras as we wanted to get as much footage as we could from different angles and shots. To edit our video we used iMovie on Mac, iMovie was also used to make our rough cuts.
For our evaluation we used iMovie to record our group discussion through video mode.  

Tuesday 22 March 2011

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

Monday 28 February 2011

Audience Feedback - Digipak

Today the whole A2 Media class gathered around to watch each others video and have a look at each others ancillary task which was the Magazine ad. and the Digipak.

For our Digipak, the feedback we had recieved are that the green scarf needs to be more brighter as it is a iconography during the music video.
and the inside right panel there was a mixture of feedback as some said that the wordle - black and white didn't really have any energy to it and didn't look like a pop digipak, however others said it looked different, unique style and it looked appealing.
However as a group idea we had discussed earlier on, we decided to put the wordle there in black and white because on the CD the design on the front would be the wordle as well... so it would merge in well with the right panel.
Since we didn't come to no decision, I have chosen my own time to go around and get audience feedback of members of the public in our college.

Posted by Tamanna

Lisa's Song Final Music Video


On Friday 18th February, we finally completed the music video! YAY! After much tweaking and shuffling of the clips back and forth, we have finally agreed on this to be our final product. However, in our last few precious minutes of editing we did face some major faults as there was a particular clip we needed to replace as the whole shot was out of frame, further there was another clip which was too long and after inserting a cross dissolve we aimed to rectify this mistake; however this resulted in everything moving down a few seconds which is why we couldn't leave the cross dissolve in place. 

After watching the final clip back a few times, we ourselves realised that there were particular clips where she would glance sideways, or away from the camera; which is why we had to make minute cuts here and there. 

We are extremely satisfied with the overall result and are hoping that after gaining some feedback we will be able to comply to any improvements regarding the music video or the magazine ad or digipak as soon as possible. 

The Scooby Gang

Monday 7 February 2011

Digipak

CD Digipak Dimensions - 139mm x 125mm
So here is the digipak I have been working on whilst the others have been editing the music video.
This is a working process of the Digipak.
The reason why we have the scarf only in colour was to link with the Magazine advert it has almost become an iconography of the artist. This was a thumbs up :)
However what I had to change with the font of 'Jessica York' as it was in a totally different font type from the magazine advert therefore, I changed it to the one that was on magazine advert.








It now looks like this

Front Cover

Back Cover


Not finished however... you get the idea of the back

Right panel inside



Left panel inside


^ This is a plain left panel for the pocket we are making
 to go inside on the left panel which will
include poster of the Artist and so on...

Left panel inside


Audience feedback for the Digipak, on the inside left panel we shouldn't
leave it blank and should have the 'grey' block design on it as it shows the
continuity design from the front



Posted by Tamanna