Wednesday 23 November 2011
Monday 21 November 2011
First Evaluation Post
Question 1: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Close up: Amy McDonald - This Is The Life
Amelia in our music video - Close ups
The close up is a vital filming method which frequently appears in music videos and this was to try and connect to the viewer and can relate to the audience more than other shots. We used the close up so we could have various different shots as opposed to just long shots throughout. We have used the Amy McDonald video above as a comparison to our video because the shot only shows her eyes and nose and in the shot above from our video, you can see only her nose and mouth, therefore this means that this is an extreme close up.
Narrative: The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
This was the narrative but it is also a motif as Amelia was walking through the trees on each chorus. This is so the audience can visualise the chorus with Amelia walking through the trees. Even though this is an Alice in Wonderland themed music video, it still gives us a flavour of what the artists' style is, however, the lyrics relate to the video, as it is about feeling misplaced. We have compared it to The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony from 1997 as there is a clear narrative in the music video and in the chorus for our song, as mentioned above, includes Amelia walking through the trees. Throughout the Verve's music video, the narrative of Richard Ashcroft walking through the streets of Hoxton, North London is continued throughout the whole music video, however we only have a snapshot of a narrative where our character is walking.
Lighting: Miley Cyrus - When I Look At You
Lighting was a key theme in our music video - it is clear that in the Miley Cyrus video above, she has used bright colours, which gives the video a feel that makes it look unrealistic. In our video, we have a similar style. The colours on Amelia's character's clothes are slightly brighter than a normal music video, whereas the background colours are more dull, such as a dark shade of green. The trees are made to look darker than they do in reality, also, Amelia's character is on her own in the music video and the colours and the general feel of the music video give it a feeling of emptiness.
Theme: Payton Rae - Not Your Cinderella
Challenged theme - We managed to find props such as the hat and the "Drink Me" bottle, the latter of which the audience seemed to remember the most when viewing our music video. These props were to link the music video with the Alice in Wonderland theme and it was easy to get hold of these particular props. We also had a miniature pocket watch and the dolls' house, which we did have to reassemble but we felt it was used effectively in the end. It can be linked to the music video above as it focuses on the fairytale theme with Cinderella and the mystical-looking vehicle in the picture above.
Theme: Sara Bareilles - Love Song
The location in these two music videos can be related to the fairytale theme. In the Sara Bareilles video, she is in a music box, which strongly relates to the fairytale theme and the props in our video can be related to the Alice in Wonderland theme as they are all different. The hat and the teapot in particular can be linked to that theme.
Eliza Doolittle - Skinny Genes
Jessie J - Price Tag
This music video generally has the feel of many people's childhoods and the "delights" of being a child! The video includes things like the ballerina, and these connotations strongly relates to our Alice in Wonderland theme, however Jessie J has a more positive outlook on it then our video depicts. Whereas our video has our character alone in the video with the feeling of being misplaced, Jessie J has her in different fairytale connotations and there is a general positive feel throughout the music video.
This is a recurring image - motif - and our scene in the Audrianna Cole music video can clearly be linked to this image above with Jessie J in the dolls' house.
Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Close up: Amy McDonald - This Is The Life
Amelia in our music video - Close ups
The close up is a vital filming method which frequently appears in music videos and this was to try and connect to the viewer and can relate to the audience more than other shots. We used the close up so we could have various different shots as opposed to just long shots throughout. We have used the Amy McDonald video above as a comparison to our video because the shot only shows her eyes and nose and in the shot above from our video, you can see only her nose and mouth, therefore this means that this is an extreme close up.
Narrative: The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony
This was the narrative but it is also a motif as Amelia was walking through the trees on each chorus. This is so the audience can visualise the chorus with Amelia walking through the trees. Even though this is an Alice in Wonderland themed music video, it still gives us a flavour of what the artists' style is, however, the lyrics relate to the video, as it is about feeling misplaced. We have compared it to The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony from 1997 as there is a clear narrative in the music video and in the chorus for our song, as mentioned above, includes Amelia walking through the trees. Throughout the Verve's music video, the narrative of Richard Ashcroft walking through the streets of Hoxton, North London is continued throughout the whole music video, however we only have a snapshot of a narrative where our character is walking.
Lighting: Miley Cyrus - When I Look At You
Lighting was a key theme in our music video - it is clear that in the Miley Cyrus video above, she has used bright colours, which gives the video a feel that makes it look unrealistic. In our video, we have a similar style. The colours on Amelia's character's clothes are slightly brighter than a normal music video, whereas the background colours are more dull, such as a dark shade of green. The trees are made to look darker than they do in reality, also, Amelia's character is on her own in the music video and the colours and the general feel of the music video give it a feeling of emptiness.
Theme: Payton Rae - Not Your Cinderella
Challenged theme - We managed to find props such as the hat and the "Drink Me" bottle, the latter of which the audience seemed to remember the most when viewing our music video. These props were to link the music video with the Alice in Wonderland theme and it was easy to get hold of these particular props. We also had a miniature pocket watch and the dolls' house, which we did have to reassemble but we felt it was used effectively in the end. It can be linked to the music video above as it focuses on the fairytale theme with Cinderella and the mystical-looking vehicle in the picture above.
Theme: Sara Bareilles - Love Song
The location in these two music videos can be related to the fairytale theme. In the Sara Bareilles video, she is in a music box, which strongly relates to the fairytale theme and the props in our video can be related to the Alice in Wonderland theme as they are all different. The hat and the teapot in particular can be linked to that theme.
Eliza Doolittle - Skinny Genes
Jessie J - Price Tag
This music video generally has the feel of many people's childhoods and the "delights" of being a child! The video includes things like the ballerina, and these connotations strongly relates to our Alice in Wonderland theme, however Jessie J has a more positive outlook on it then our video depicts. Whereas our video has our character alone in the video with the feeling of being misplaced, Jessie J has her in different fairytale connotations and there is a general positive feel throughout the music video.
This is a recurring image - motif - and our scene in the Audrianna Cole music video can clearly be linked to this image above with Jessie J in the dolls' house.
Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Audience Feedback Results
In assembly this morning, the sixth form were handed yellow sheets so we could gather information on what they thought of our videos and there were issues such as the fact we have not used all our footage and there are a few gaps. Other criticism focused on Amelia's lip synching and the video generally could be more interesting.
Positive criticism, however, came in the form of Amelia playing Alice, in fact one person described her as a "cool Alice"! Other positive feedback was that it was professional and authentic. The editing was also appreciated and the location also received good feedback.
Positive criticism, however, came in the form of Amelia playing Alice, in fact one person described her as a "cool Alice"! Other positive feedback was that it was professional and authentic. The editing was also appreciated and the location also received good feedback.
Thursday 17 November 2011
Audience Gratification
An important factor of creating something media-related is the reaction of the audience. We have already researched the connotations of the Indie genre and I have focused on what people who like and dislike Indie music have thought about the idea of the music video and the video itself, so this task focuses on how the audience absorbs this piece of media text.
To do this, I need to find out what it is the audience want and how they gratify the media text:
1. Connection to the artist - this is currently easier than ever as now people can follow a famous person on Twitter or "Like" their Facebook page and get directly in contact with the artist.
2. Synergy with other artists - At the moment, Rap is not the only genre where famous people combine such as Rihanna and Jay-Z or 50 Cent and Eminem: there is also a feel of synergy in indie/pop music. Ed Sheeran and Rupert Grint combine in the music video for Lego House, which is important as Ed Sheeran and the Harry Potter franchise, in which Rupert Grint is most famously recognised, are big at the moment.
3. Iconography/Role Model - This is done by how the artist dresses and goes out. In our audience research back in October, we found out that they did not follow every ounce of dress sense that the famous person had, but they were certainly influenced by it.
To do this, I need to find out what it is the audience want and how they gratify the media text:
1. Connection to the artist - this is currently easier than ever as now people can follow a famous person on Twitter or "Like" their Facebook page and get directly in contact with the artist.
2. Synergy with other artists - At the moment, Rap is not the only genre where famous people combine such as Rihanna and Jay-Z or 50 Cent and Eminem: there is also a feel of synergy in indie/pop music. Ed Sheeran and Rupert Grint combine in the music video for Lego House, which is important as Ed Sheeran and the Harry Potter franchise, in which Rupert Grint is most famously recognised, are big at the moment.
3. Iconography/Role Model - This is done by how the artist dresses and goes out. In our audience research back in October, we found out that they did not follow every ounce of dress sense that the famous person had, but they were certainly influenced by it.
Music Video Progress
As we have most of our footage, I think we have done well and got the shots we needed, however we will know if it is good or not next Monday when the 5 Media groups' videos are shown in assembly to the whole of Sixth Form next Monday!
However, I have seen other people's work and I believe that if we had more time to film then we should have filmed in other locations as we just filmed in the school. The advantages to this were that we didn't need to go very far to film our scenes and they still turned out well, but looking at other groups' work, there is more variation and they filmed in their houses and the surrounding towns and villages. One group even managed to film in the centre of Cambridge!
Overall I think we have made a video which is typical of the genre and challenges conventions, however I can see where we would need to improve if we had to make it again.
However, I have seen other people's work and I believe that if we had more time to film then we should have filmed in other locations as we just filmed in the school. The advantages to this were that we didn't need to go very far to film our scenes and they still turned out well, but looking at other groups' work, there is more variation and they filmed in their houses and the surrounding towns and villages. One group even managed to film in the centre of Cambridge!
Overall I think we have made a video which is typical of the genre and challenges conventions, however I can see where we would need to improve if we had to make it again.
Magazine Advert Research
In order to create an advert to appear in a magazine for the Audrianna Cole digipack, the three of us looked into other artists' who had digipacks. Miss Mapp, our teacher, had about 15 copies of front covers for albums and singles and we selected the artist who had a similar criteria to our own, which was Hampshire-based Laura Marling.
In the group, we analysed the front cover for her single "Cross Your Fingers/Crawled Out Of The Sea" and we came up with information such as the fact that she was not on the front cover, and considered whether it was typical of the genre. We decided that it is not, however Laura Marling had decided to do this because this was only an aspect of her work and on her album there is a picture of her, therefore we decided to keep the picture of Audrianna Cole on the front of our front cover. Underneath is a picture of our work.
In the group, we analysed the front cover for her single "Cross Your Fingers/Crawled Out Of The Sea" and we came up with information such as the fact that she was not on the front cover, and considered whether it was typical of the genre. We decided that it is not, however Laura Marling had decided to do this because this was only an aspect of her work and on her album there is a picture of her, therefore we decided to keep the picture of Audrianna Cole on the front of our front cover. Underneath is a picture of our work.
Audience Feedback Questions
In order to gain a wider perspective of the Indie genre and how we have done, we are coming up with some interview questions that we can ask people after they have viewed our music video at next week's assembly.
1. Do you feel that our music video fits into the genre (Indie/Pop)? Why?
2. Does our music video look authentic? Why?
3. What aspects of the video do you find effective?
4. Any criticism that you feel we could benefit from?
1. Do you feel that our music video fits into the genre (Indie/Pop)? Why?
2. Does our music video look authentic? Why?
3. What aspects of the video do you find effective?
4. Any criticism that you feel we could benefit from?
Monday 14 November 2011
Misplaced Comparison Preparation Post
To ensure that our music video for Audrianna Cole - Misplaced, is similar to that of other music videos in terms of aspects such as lighting, the narrative and the theme, I have decided to do a post about what the next task will entail. What will happen is I will look on YouTube for music videos that we can compare to Misplaced, and the songs that I will research don't necessarily have to be the same genre. I will post it on the blog later on in the week!
Friday 11 November 2011
Back Cover
Here is our back cover for our album. We have included some of her own tracks and created titles for others that link to the Alice in Wonderland theme. Tracks 1, 3-7 are her own tracks and we created the names titles for Tracks 2, 8-10. Here is the track listing:
1. Misplaced
2. Lost in Wonderland
3. Ain't Gonna Letcha
4. I'd Get Lost With You
5. Lovely
6. Say Yes Say No
7. Shrug It Off
8. Fallen Cards
9. You're Late
10. Cup Full Of Nothing
The meanings for 2, 8 and 10 are clear but, just to clarify, 9 cleverly has a double meaning. It relates to the watch and late in love!
Final Inlay
This is the edited version of the balloon photo, as promised! In the end we included the photo with "thank you's" to her fans, friends and family to replicate other artists' albums.
Balloons
We wanted this photo to appear on the inlay of the Digipack, but, because a CD is square and this photo has been taken at a rectangular angle, we had to edit it as we needed it to fit on the CD! The edited version will be uploaded soon.
Front Cover
For this photo of Amelia Waterson as Audrianna Cole, which was edited by Amelia Quinn, we had to take into consideration what type of font we should use by going onto a website called DaFont. At first I thought this particular font seemed to not work as it looked larger than it is now, however, with a bit of editing, we agreed that it worked in the end!
Editing Days
The last two days, Wednesday and Thursday, have been Media Editing Days, so these consisted of editing our footage. We have most of our footage and we got some editing done but we still have a long way to go. Looking at the four other groups in our Media Studies class, we need to have more varying angles, however Sean is in the process of doing this.
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Track Listing
In the end our group decided that instead we should do actual titles for Audrianna Cole's songs and create a few others. Most of the titles Sean and Amelia created had 2 words.
Track Listing Planning
For our Audrianna Cole digipack, I am considering what we could call her other tracks so we can make a back cover for the digipack with a track listing. I have looked at other artists' song names as they appear on their albums. The albums I have looked at include:
Coldplay - Parachutes (2000); songs such as "Shiver", "Yellow" and "Trouble" may have short, one word titles but has a larger effect than a song title with, for instance, six words, such as "I can't have it my way". 6 of the 10 songs on the album are actually one word titles, and most of them seem effective.
Adele - 21 (2011); songs like "Don't You Remember" and "He Won't Go" have longer titles than some of Coldplay's songs but they are still as effective as them.
Despite Coldplay and Adele having a slightly different feel to our Audrianna Cole song, this research is still useful as I wanted to have a base for the song titles for our digipack and I feel that these songs have effective titles.
Coldplay - Parachutes (2000); songs such as "Shiver", "Yellow" and "Trouble" may have short, one word titles but has a larger effect than a song title with, for instance, six words, such as "I can't have it my way". 6 of the 10 songs on the album are actually one word titles, and most of them seem effective.
Adele - 21 (2011); songs like "Don't You Remember" and "He Won't Go" have longer titles than some of Coldplay's songs but they are still as effective as them.
Despite Coldplay and Adele having a slightly different feel to our Audrianna Cole song, this research is still useful as I wanted to have a base for the song titles for our digipack and I feel that these songs have effective titles.
Monday 7 November 2011
Audience Feedback
I asked members of the public what they thought of our music video to see if it was conventional of the genre or whether it was not a typical music video.
Jenny: I thought it was excellent, the locations were good, the timing was spot on and the acting was not bad. However, even though I enjoyed the camerawork it could look more professional but I did enjoy the Alice in Wonderland theme, I thought that was quite clever. Not being an Indie fan myself, this music video would definitely make me change my mind about the genre!
Jack: I am a massive Indie fan but I felt this was not typical of the genre. I could see particular references that were excellent but generally I didn't get the feel that you get with other Indie videos and some of the camera angles were a bit repetitive. On the other hand, it was still a good piece of work.
Overall, I think there is a positive reaction, however I can see where we need to improve.
Jenny: I thought it was excellent, the locations were good, the timing was spot on and the acting was not bad. However, even though I enjoyed the camerawork it could look more professional but I did enjoy the Alice in Wonderland theme, I thought that was quite clever. Not being an Indie fan myself, this music video would definitely make me change my mind about the genre!
Jack: I am a massive Indie fan but I felt this was not typical of the genre. I could see particular references that were excellent but generally I didn't get the feel that you get with other Indie videos and some of the camera angles were a bit repetitive. On the other hand, it was still a good piece of work.
Overall, I think there is a positive reaction, however I can see where we need to improve.
Thursday 3 November 2011
Yesterday's filming
Yesterday, our group filmed some more of the music video. I couldn't make it again but this is what happened:
Amelia and Sean filmed the opening scene by a large tree to create a similar feel to Alice in Wonderland and the rabbit hole.
They took different angles of Amelia W to make the scene more interesting to our audience and the viewer.
Amelia and Sean filmed the opening scene by a large tree to create a similar feel to Alice in Wonderland and the rabbit hole.
They took different angles of Amelia W to make the scene more interesting to our audience and the viewer.
Wednesday 2 November 2011
Filming Progress
Our group arranged another filming session so it could be on Monday, 31st October and this time I was able to make it! We met in our Media classroom just after school.
Our first task entailed Amelia Q bringing in a doll's house she had at home to stick to the theme of Alice in Wonderland. We needed to make sure our actress, Amelia W, could fit in it, and she managed to. This was after we removed the floors of the house and put a wallpaper inside it.
This had taken about 20 minutes, so it was nearly 16:00 when we were about to start filming, and as the clocks had gone back the day before, it would get dark in the next hour, so we had to be quick. We had a few takes of Amelia W opening the door from the inside. We managed to get our takes in 15 minutes or so, before it got too dark.
Then we moved back into the classroom and filmed more of Amelia W mouthing the words to the song. Most of the shots were long shots, but we took a few close ups as well.
I think the filming session went really well, however for next time there needs to be more variation in the shots. For example, the words "Your love" are repeated in the chorus quite a few times, therefore I think we should have Amelia W mouthing these words but in different locations because at the moment, she is only in the classroom and I can see the potential for more shots.
Our first task entailed Amelia Q bringing in a doll's house she had at home to stick to the theme of Alice in Wonderland. We needed to make sure our actress, Amelia W, could fit in it, and she managed to. This was after we removed the floors of the house and put a wallpaper inside it.
This had taken about 20 minutes, so it was nearly 16:00 when we were about to start filming, and as the clocks had gone back the day before, it would get dark in the next hour, so we had to be quick. We had a few takes of Amelia W opening the door from the inside. We managed to get our takes in 15 minutes or so, before it got too dark.
Then we moved back into the classroom and filmed more of Amelia W mouthing the words to the song. Most of the shots were long shots, but we took a few close ups as well.
I think the filming session went really well, however for next time there needs to be more variation in the shots. For example, the words "Your love" are repeated in the chorus quite a few times, therefore I think we should have Amelia W mouthing these words but in different locations because at the moment, she is only in the classroom and I can see the potential for more shots.
Filming before Half-term
Before half-term, I mentioned that I was unable to make the first group filming session on the 19th October as I had other activities. However, I asked about how it went and I saw the other members of my group's blog posts and I discovered that Sean managed to get a white table cloth for the table that was necessary for the tea party (hence the Alice in Wonderland theme) and Amelia Quinn (in our group) decided that the first scene that needed to be filmed was the main one.
Our actress, Amelia Waterson, mouthed the words to the Audrianna Cole song when Sean was playing it from his iPhone. At first, she was unconfident with the task requested but in the end got the confidence. More information I got from this filming session was the weather and everyone involved was freezing, especially Amelia W who was wearing a dress!
Our actress, Amelia Waterson, mouthed the words to the Audrianna Cole song when Sean was playing it from his iPhone. At first, she was unconfident with the task requested but in the end got the confidence. More information I got from this filming session was the weather and everyone involved was freezing, especially Amelia W who was wearing a dress!
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