Evaluation

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

After completing all of our work including music video and all print , we made a commentary of how we achieved the results and critically evaluated it.



We completed extensive research before starting any of our filming and got alot of ideas from current and past ,music videos. The dancing scenes were inspired by Beyonces 'single ladies' video but we took the changing colour idea from Calvin Harris's 'Acceptable in the 80's music video.

Sesha Video

Beyonce Video



Calvin Harris Video

We also took inspiration from many previous media products when creating our print yet we have always put our own stamp on it. We originally got the multiple personality idea for our front cover from our research into our personally preferred music artist. we came across many people that had used this idea in there work such as Whitney Houston , Maria Carey and Beyonce.

Sesha album cover



Inspirational Album covers

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

As we were making both the video and print work we tried to keep a interconnecting link between the two. the main connection we used was colour,Baby pink and blue are the only colours featured in both the video and print. We chose these colours as they are typically feminine and work well together.

Another thing we tried to subtly link is the three figures on the album cover with the three figure dance formation. We positioned the dancers as if they were mirroring the album cover, we did experiment with having three of the lead character but it looked better with the backing dancers as well.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We Had allot of audience feedback throughout the production of our video and print, we took it all on board and altered the product to maximise its potential. We have created a short video of audience Feedback all of different ages and profession.




After we had finished our video we created a YouTube account and uploaded it for people to watch, in the first two days we got 400 hits and some very nice comments.


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

Without the use of new media technologies we undoubtedly would not have been able to create the final product to the standard that it is. right from the beginning we used the Internet to do research on our project and Microsoft programmes to make schedules and time plans. Throughout the project we used email and social networking sites to get people together for filming etc.









Throughout the process of making the video we had many outsiders involved on the project, whether it be extras in the video, teachers supervising at dinner time and after college filming or rehearsals so we always has input from different people telling us what they thought, sometimes giving us constructive criticism some with which we went with and some that we ignored as at the end of the day we were the vision behind what we were creating and had planned exactly how we wanted our video to look like, even if this sometimes didn’t go exactly to plan for example the compromise we had to make with our club scene, obviously what we had planned at the start would have been more visually attractive, but going with the circumstances our timescale and also our budget was the main reason we had to compromise.

Finished Music video

After tweaking a few things after the initial feedback we received we have now finished the editing of the video.

Kesha Tik Tok

Sesha Tik Tok
Sesha - Sally Lyon
Backing dancers - Beth Grimshaw, Carmella Finnigan
Producers - Max Mayer, Tom Hart

Digi pack editing and final outcome

We did various photo shoots to get the images for the digi pack, we completed all of these in the studio with various poses and a team doing hair and makeup. We have kept all of the pages in black and white with a pink writing theme throughout except the front and back cover which are in full colour.

Example of digi pack page before feedback , we changed the designs many times we just didn't keep all of the old designs.


Finished print


Front cover: This was one of the first tasks we did, creating a triple persona out of one character. we finished it off by adding swirls we had made on photo shop and the writing created online.



Back cover: For the back cover we wanted it to have some similarity to the front for aesthetic purposes , this is why we did the two faces either side of the writing again having multiple personalities. We kept all the writing pink and added logos we had made and a bar code.

Centre piece: For the centre piece we made a clock shape that would house the CD, In the background we placed a slightly opace image of sally to add interest

Side piece: In this side piece we wrote full track listing and who wrote and produced them , sort of like a recognition page. yet again we kept the text the same and added the logos we had produced to make it look more professional.

Side piece: As the whole project is quite creative we wanted a slogan page so we came up with the slogan 'Sparkle baby' and overlayed it onto a photoshoped image of sally with glowing lines that we created on photo shop.

Side piece: For the final side piece we created a signature page with one of the images from the album cover shoot on it and a simple signature that we got sally to write and then we scanned it in and edited it onto the background.

Advertising poster Photoshoot and editing

We came up with the idea for the Advertising poster after doing some research into quirky advertising campaigns. As the music video was so different to everyone Else's work we wanted the print to be quite unique hence the chain. We took pictures of sally with a chain in her mouth and added a stopwatch on her lips in photo shop. The idea is that the words Tik Tok are coming from her mouth in an artistic sense rather than physically. We kept the type quite simple just coloured it pink to in keep with the 'Sesha' characters persona.

Feedback on roughcut video

We received feedback from a group of people in the college on the video. All the feedback was positive but there are just a few things that people have suggested and commented on. Therefore we will continue to do minor alterations on the video to make it the best that it can be.

' Wow thats amazing , did you guys do that, im really jelous, i cant wait to show everybody'
L6 student

'Omg thats well good i wish i could do stuff like this it looks so profesional'
U6 student

Editing the video

Now we had all of our footage it was time to start editing, instead of doing random bits at a time we decided to edit the video chronologically. We started by cutting all of the video into sections on a separate timeline so we could work on the section required.



The opening verse was quite easy to edit , we just pieced together the footage from the 'bedroom' and location to create a storyline.

The first chorus was quite difficult to edit as it Had a fast pace and required a lot of cuts. We had filmed the same dance routine in three styles, with a plain background, blue and pink. All of these were filmed from the same distance on a tripod so i could cut and blend between colours.

Blue blending to pink.

The second verse was again clips of the location shoot, where we used a counter zoom as the dancers were walking towards the camera. We also used a clip of the studded wallpaper with Carmella sliding down to match the lyrics.

To break into the chorus we used Sally walking towards the camera and actually pushing the camera down which then faded to black this worked really well to provide a link to the next part of the video.

Keyframes of camera being pushed down giving male gaze of lead girl.

For the second chorus we used the plain background dance routine along with the checkerboard it worked really well as they were all neutral colours and the viewer can focus on the choreography. We altered the contrast on these videos to give a more crisp look.

In the bridge i used a mix of dance solos speeding the cutting up to follow the pace of the song, for the climax i blended a small clip of video where all of the cast Had done the same dance move so one person started and another finished.To give the clips a more professional feel we placed a edge feather on them

In the final verse we used an array of the old clips along with the compromised club scene to show a party atmosphere. we finished with the main character walking towards the camera and laughing fading out to black .

Final filiming day - compromised club scene

The only thing left to film now was the club scene. As we had been let down by our location we had to compromise and find somewhere else for filming. It just so happened that the art foundation students were creating there art installations this week, by coincidence one of them was themed like a club and in check board which matched our previous shooting. We gathered together people form the college to dance as extras and filmed the final scene in the installation.

The outcome was ok but not great as it is hard to control a large amount of people, but we got a few good shots from it. We also made a giant clock and filmed Sally against it in case we needed filler shots.

Bedroom studio shoot

We had storyboarded a bedroom scene into the music video to introduce it and act as a filler throughout the first verse. After hunting for posh bedroom locations and looking into hotel rooms we decide we would create our own bedroom set. We went shopping for props and found some great wallpaper that looked Like studded leather. We fixed this onto the wall and lay Sally against it as if she was lying down.

The outcome looked fairly professional so we were quite happy with the results. We also filmed small filler clips with the dancers against the wallpaper with dangling fibre optic lights.

On Location

The third shoot we chose to shoot on location as we had filmed a lot in the studio, we chose to film at wigan pier as it had industrial and rustic features. The day we filmed was a very cold day so our performers had their work cut out for them.

Another hindrance was the general public because we had a camera and a lot of people deliberately got in the way of the shot, which meant we would have to keep shooting the same shot which was a time consuming as we also had to be back in college as our main girl Sally had an exam in the afternoon. After about half an hour of trying we finally managed to get the shots we wanted.

We used a tripod to keep the camera steady and attempted counter zoom as the girls were walking towards the camera.

Starting the Editing Process

We realised we had a lot of footage that we had taken and we now needed to start cutting it down and choose the best bits. As we had already filmed over 12 hours of footage,so we spent a morning getting the bits we wanted. After that we could start to put the clips against the song and start creating the music video. This now clearly showed us what we still needed to do.

Second studio shoot

For our second studio shoot we used Sally on her own against a black and white chequered wall that we made using spray paint and stencils, we came up with the idea of a circular shaped room. we placed sally in the same position with different persona's using wigs and costume and paned past her continuously and blended it in on premier to look like a circular room.

Unfortunately this was not as successful as first hoped so we used sally with a roll effect which looked more proffesional.