A2 Media Greg 2009/10: Evaluation

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

Normally, for this genre of music - pop/dance - we would want to create a very high gloss video, like the ones already officially released by the group(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0K46C82v9o). However, the song we have chosen is quite different from the ones they usually release, as it is less of a dance track and has a much slower tempo with a sentimental feel to the lyrics and style of singing. Due to this, and for cost reasons, we wanted to move away from some of the conventions of pop/R&B videos - high gloss: lots of jewellery, dancing and skimpy outfits - and create a video with a plot that our audience could relate to, i.e. a relationship that has complications.

As there is only one singer for this song, we decided to create a very strong-willed female character, as this is important to the understanding of the plot (He has cheated, but She's getting on with life). This is a common feature of music videos. The lead singer comes across as a strong figure, which is often potrayed through their actions in the video and through camera shots, movement and compositioning. To expand on this, the camera will usually be at eye level so that the audience can relate to the character; the camera will follow and focus on them throughout; and they will always be the main focus of the shots, usually evoking emotions that are put forward in the lyrics themselves. For example:

Taylor Swift - Picture to burn

Rihanna - Hard

Pussycat Dolls - I don't need a man

Other shots that are used are low angle shots looking up at the artist. This is seen in quite a few music videos surrounding relationships as it shows that the female can be stronger, dominant and that they have the strength to be independant and don't need a man. For example:

Taylor Swift - Picture to burn

Kelly Clarkson - I do not hook up

In order to help us to portray the same idea we have used this research and tried to create similar shots in our own video.

We have followed many conventions on our ancillary texts. For example, from our research we discovered that many album covers follow a trend of having the artist as the main focus. We found that having close up images of the artist were popular so we decided to go along with this.

Our Finished Album Cover:

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

Our music video has been made to accompany the music of Melody Thornton, who is a 25 year-old R&B singer from the US. She has become well-known for her part in the pop group the Pussycat Dolls where she sings along side 5 other members. The song we chose, Space, was off their second album Doll Domination, which features a solo song from each group member, Space being Melody Thornton's. As a pop group, they appeal to a mostly female audience between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one. I think it would appeal to this age range and possibly older females as it is about a dysfunctional relationship that everyone goes through at some point in there life. The song may lead to women feeling empowered and that they can go on after such a relationship.

These feelings will be brought up through our use of camera angles, and shots of our singer in dominating positions on screen. This will also be backed up with the type of shots we used in our print products. We have chosen full on facial close-ups, where she is carrying a strong expression, which found a popular choice amongst real media products.

We have tried to create a similar atmosphere throughout our video and print work. We wanted our audience to connect with our singer, not only through the lyrics but through the look of the album. We thought this would be done best by giving the CD cover a personal feel - like a diary, which we did by using fonts that mimic handwriting and using an informal way of writing on the "Thank You" page. We also put kisses and love hearts on the pages, as we thought this was appeal to the females and younger teens in our audience. This is also why we chose the swirls to decorate our pages, as they created a doodle-like effect, that links back to our idea of personal diary. The swirls also helped to create a clear link between each page in our product and that to the advertising poster.

We have created a good link between the video and the print work, through the use of colour. Our singer is dressed in blues, pinks and purples in most shots, which are the main colours of the swirls and text in our print products. This is something we hope our audience will notice and appreciate.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Generally we were quite lucky with out audience feedback as it tendedto be of a postitive nature yet also procuded us with the constructive criticism that we were able to build upon and mutate our work around. A perfect example of this was Joel's criticism (see front cover and feedback blog). We agreed with this and changed it accordingly, leaving us with a better product due to his feedback.

The music video was also changed because of audience feedback. Which included shortening the first studio shot as it was too long. We also lost the box fade as our audience said it looked tacky and out of place, so we removed this.

We also found that our audience did not understand that the flashback scene was such and they found it quite confusing. As a response to this we made it black and white and found that this was much better as people understood the concept and meaning.

One general criticism we received was that the audience were not quite grasping what was going on in the video. This meant a thorough restructuring of the text and in addition more of the actual storyline and less studio shots.

All this came as a result of our audience feedback.

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Equipment Used:

Computer Programmes:

If any of these technologies were not available to us or were less developed we would not have been able to create our project to as high a standard as we have. If these technologies were not as advanced as they are our production process would have been very different and made much more difficult. For example:

- We would have had to have used an old editing style known as "crash editing". This process involves cutting and sticking from several reems of tape in order to create cuts and scenes. This would have been much more difficult as no mistakes could have been made and we would have been unable to experiment with different shots. It would also have been much more expensive.

- There could be no effects throughout the video, such as cross fades or colour editing. If this were the case it would have been difficult to create significance of certain scenes, objects and characters. For example, we have put "past" scenes in black and white in order to distinguish them from scenes set in the "present", as this has universal connotations that link to memories. We would have had to have found other ways of distinguishing these scenes that may have been less obvious to the audience, therefore decreasing the effect of our message.

Below are some screenshots of websites we have used during our project with explantations of what we used them for:

(screenshot - google album covers and digipaks)