EVALUATION 4

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

To create our project including video, digi pack and advertisement we used a variety of new technologies. We used Adobe Premiere to edit and put together our digital video as well as add effects such as black and white, enhanced colour, fade ins and outs, speed up footage and slow them down. We used Adobe Photoshop to create the digipack and advertisement as this programme allows you to play around with colours, texts and sizes. We created all of our work on a Dell computer and used a video camera to shoot our footage and a stills camera for our stop motion and for the photo shoot for album art. During our research stage we used the computer to surf the internet to find different album covers, research Kinga Burza (the director of most Kate Nash's videos) and also used youtube to watch some music videos.

EVALUATION 3

3.What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We always considered our target audience when making the video. We were aware our audience is mostly female between the age 14-25. We were confident they would respond well to the universal storyline being about a troubled relationship with the singer feeling angry and confused, it is something that all people will go through in life. At the end when there is a reunion between 'Lola' and her ex-boyfriend, she realises that she doesn't need him and walks off linking arms with her friend, we purposely choice this ending to speak to our female audience, it shows that she has moved on and empowers other women to do the same.

We continually seeked feedback to assure we were moving in the right direction and getting a positive reaction from our audience. The feedback that we received regarding our footage was very constructive and we tried to use it wisely and improve. When coming to the end of video production, we found that we needed more of a variety of shots through feed back. Due to this we were able to address the situation and include new shots, which we believe will aid our video. Already the people that we asked enjoyed the video despite it being a rough cut. When we showed the final piece we found the black and white flash backs seemed to be appreciated most. It seemed the second storyline made a really successful video. As well as the story line. Stop motion was also praised, and it is the aspect we are most proud of, our audience said it added a unique aspect to our video. One particular audience member highlighted the piano shots and the general introduction as a success in the video also.

Regarding our text products we were met with similar success. Like we had anticipate most felt our use of polaroids were most effective. They also appreciated our illustration image on our digi pack

Over all the feedback was genuinely positive and please us as the producers.

Here is an example of the feedback we received;

EVALUATION 2

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

We believe our character is represented strongly in both our video and our text products. We are onfident their is a consistency of genre and character throughout them both.

Similarly to our video we exercised continuous research into our text project. We found that Kate Nash's covers for singles are always doodles rather than a picture of her. Other quirky pop stars; Mika and Ladyhawke, also follow this convention of doodles on their covers. We played about with this idea initially however in the end decided to use a picture of 'Lola' on the cover as we felt that it looked better and is also the conventional cover of a female pop singer. We did not wish to challenge the typical convention of the artist on the cover. However rather than waster our illustration we added it to our digi pack to add variation the images in their. Below is both the Advertisement and the Digipack, as well as some examples of the covers we found when researching.

1. ADVERT

Our character is typically 'indie' and quirky, we believe she has a nostalgic value and to represent this we added iconic polaroid images using a programme named 'poladroid' to transform the normal image. We think combined with the other images it has help create a very successful advertisement piece. The central image is the CD cover. What we believe is most affective is the image of lola essentially leaning on her own product. We considered this a quirky touch, this image was created through photoshop. Their are enough features such as quotes and references to stockists for the advert to be authentic, but the selection of images and layout make it equally creative.

2. DIGI PACK

We consider are digi pack very successful. The selection of images are varied and so entertaining. They are typical of lola's persona and image. They also highlight are ability in photoshop to make such varied images. The text too is typical of digipack, using lyrics from the singles, and also a side strictly for track names. One image is were the CD will be placed, this is decorated with an illustration of Lola's shoes and a male's shoes. We referenced this earlier in the blog and it was our original idea for a cover but we think it looks just as effective in this position. The avoid an overload of images we also included shots of the piano, which is strongly associated to the music of Nash and consequently Lola.

RESEARCH;

these were useful in educating our ideas for our own text pieces.

To summarise; the combination of our text and film is a strong success. We worked hard to maintain an image across the products. We are confident the representation of Lola as an artist is consistent across the mediums.

EVALUATION 1

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

We wanted to use the conventions that Kate Nash usually uses in her music videos to remain authentic. Luckily, Nash has yet to produce a video for the song that we have chosen, so we know our's also also completely original. Kate Nash's videos are not the typical glossy pop videos, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryH5cga0yUI) she tends to keep things quirky, minimal, colourful and has a liking for stop motion. We incorporated these basic foundations into our video. We wanted to they often portray a troubled relationship, they match her songs perfectly. They usually employ a feeling of anger and confusion in the relationship, we also feel this can be found in our video. For us to achieve a successful project we chose to also replicate Nash by occasionally acting the lyrics literally.

Kate Nash uses mainly shots of her face, but also uses shots of different parts of the body such as hands and feet and objects such as flowers and bottles;

We to have examples of this in our product;

These images are also useful in telling the story of the relationship.

Considering Nash's videos again- we were very fond of the stop motion she uses in 'Foundations'

We found the following examples, here the socks intertwine as if having a fight;

Here the watches hug;

Here are some examples of how we used this convention;

Here our love not expanded through stop motion.

Here the cheese on toast appeared to be eaten;

We noticed that she does not use the conventions of studio shots which is unusual within pop videos as they help to establish the singer.She uses different scenarios which could take place in a typical day such as, in bed, on the couch, cleaning, on the stairs, playing a board game and getting beer from the fridge;

We wanted to use this idea of using different everyday scenarios but use different ones to what Kate Nash had. We used scenarios of 'Lola' playing the piano, getting ready in the mirror, reading magazines, lying on the bed, in the car, in the woods, sat on a bench, on the phone, ironing in a restaurant and in the smoking shelter.Some of our shots were done hand held to provide movement whilst others were shot with a tripod.

Ee have captured stills of all the scenarios 'Lola' is filmed in before our video reaches it climax (the rapid thought trail and the final confrontation with 'dan' our male character). Below our the images of some of the most prominent scenes along with an explanation of why we included them and what their significance is.

1. This is a shot of Laura and Dan or 'Lola' and her ex boyfriend. It is in black and white to indicate it is in the past and it is them in happier times, this sequence involves them talking on the coach and looking blissful. This helps the audience understand they were once a happy couple but now 'Lola' is single. We took this idea from the lyrics ' i can be alone now' suggesting after a break up 'Lola' is now alone.

2. This is a shot of 'lola' in a restaurant inspired by the lyrics 'sitting in restaurant. It was filmed in our dinner hall as that was the most convincing location. It is in black and white as the sequence shows laura looking pleasant and discussing her then happy relationship with a friend. The black and white was to help the audience distinguish between the past when the relationship was in good terms to the present which we show in colour and is 'lola' alone

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3. This is a shot of 'Lola' at the smoking shelter it is one of the locations we found on college. We think it adds maturity to 'Lola's' character. This is in colour as it is 'Lola' now single and telling her story to the camera. We hope to get the lip syncing as near to the music as possible though we found this difficult.

4. This is a shot inspired by the lyrics 'chatting on the phone'. We filmed this as it suited the lyrics well and added variation to the shots of Laura talking to the camera and ultimately the audience about her situation

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5. This shot is 'Lola' in a mirror, we thought this was a original idea that gave a great visual. It's a different angle for the audience and features laura putting on lipstick. This is relatable as almost every girl applies makeup! Laura's clothes are different here to indicate this is her life now, not just one day . She has this story now every day. The theme of a break up is universal and so easily relatable. We didn't want lots of obscure shots we wanted lots of different, everyday relatable occasions. \

6. This was filmed in Laura's home, it is a shot of 'Lola' ironing which is a very normal and relatable scene. Also in this scene you can see very obviously that 'lola' is ironing her ex's shirt, a sign of denial of the breakup.

7. This is a shot of Laura dancing in amongst trees. We though thuis shot would be a welcome break from all the shots of laura lipsyncing and also the storyline line of her and dan. To add to this shot we altered the brightness and contrast. The colours are especially vivid in comparison to the black and white effect we employed for the 'past' shots.

8. This is one of our 'flashback' shots of 'lol'a and 'dan' in happier times, it is in black and white to distinguish it from the present. This was filmed on a bench in the college area but could be potentially anywhere. The great chemistry between laura and dan is caught well on camera and we are happy they appear like a genuine couple

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9. This shot of laura was filmed in her house. It gave us a different location to what we had previously filmed yet still a recognisable one in terms of music videos. This certain scene fitted well with the lyrics 'gave me those pearls and i thought they were ugly' as it shows laura removing a pearl necklace. This is the benefits of Kate Nash's lyrics, their simplicity allows us to easily compliment them with matching visuals.

10. This is a shot of a second male we included, in this poarticular picture it is in black and white but in the finished film it is in colour. It shows present 'lola' ignoring a new male interest despite being single and him obviously admiring her as she states ' i can be alone'.

11. This is another image of laura, filmed in a mirror similair to the one in the bathroom we recognised the potential of this shot, it is a quirky shot for the audience to appreciate and gives variation from the close ups and medium close ups of laura looking directly at the camera. This is laura putting on make up and fixing her hair, an extremely normal situation making her a completely relatable character.

12. This is an over the shoulder shot of 'lola' playing the piano. This is one of our favourite shots from our opening sequence. It is a strong image including the instrument and 'Lola' it also works well with the music it accompanies, a piano instrumental. One aspect of editing we strugged with was matching the hand movements to the key changes in the music. We are happy with the final results though.

Though these are just a few of our shots, hopefully the explanations make the story of our video understandable.

We are confident our production employs proven conventions of a music video in a successful manner. We chose to conform the normal conventions as they have proven results. It also helped us to have such a strong idea of the type of video we wanted.

Final Video...

Emma Meadows, Daryl Bradbury, Emily Caine, Laura Jones
'Lola Spencer- Merry Happy'

After addressing feedback this is our final video, we are very pleased with how it looks now completed :)

To appear more professional we have added the NME symbol. We researched were Kate Nash's videos have been shown, and discovered NMETV is a suitable music channel to show our video. It was a simple addition, we used the image from the website and imposed it onto our video.


This is the image we used and edited,









This is an example of the symbol NMETV use we used this image to insturct us where to position our image,






This is our final video;

Final Digipack...

Emma Meadows, Daryl Bradbury, Emily Caine, Laura Jones
'Lola Spencer- Merry Happy'

We are satisfied that this is our final digipack. With such positive feedback from our classmaters we have decided to make little changes to it since the last draft. We have also included some closeups

We have used an array of images, mostly of our central character Lola, but also of the piano used in the footage. There is also an image of shoes, which was shot for our original idea of an album cover. Regarding text, we have used original song names, Kate Nash lyrics, we also added barcodes and record label images (which we found using google images) to add authenticity to our digipack