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?

Media Technologies on Prezi

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.

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

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.

Filming our Music Video

Sean, Amelia and I have agreed that the days we will be filming are Wednesday and Thursday this week. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it on Wednesday as I am have an extra curricular activity, however, we are currently preparing the filming locations, props and actors. For Thursday, I will be looking at home for an old tablecloth for the table we are using for the tea party featured in the music video.

Genre Research

The conventions for the Indie genre:

At the moment, Indie is half way between rock and pop music. Typically Indie fans stick to their roots and they try not to go down the celebrity route of dressing expensively or extravagantly. Their clothing is modern, but it doesn't cost too much. In the UK, Indie fans are likely to buy their clothes from places like New Look or Primark, possibly H&M.

Artists include:

Ash
The XX
The Kooks
Arctic Monkeys
Friendly Fires
Bombay Bicycle Club

Audience Research Results

The second person we interviewed was a 15 year old boy that enjoyed indie music, but it wasn't his favourite genre. However, interviewing him is still a necessary aspect of our audience research as we could gain a different perspective of the genre and how it is depicted.

Alex Jones, 15
Music Fan

1. What clothes do you wear?
I wear chinos most of the time, however I do wear jeans occasionally. I also wear Polo's or plain T-shirts.

2. Do you follow the same style as the indie artists you like?
I don't follow one artist's style in particular, generally I follow a trend more than anything.

3. Do you see indie artists as an icon/role model?
Indie artists are inspirational as they are unique and individual to themselves. Many people aspire to this method as it is successful.

4. What are the key aspects that attract you to indie music?
There is a real sense of variation in this type of music and there is a good beat as well!

5. Do you go to gigs on a regular basis?
Not particularly, it's not my game.

6. When was the last gig that you went to?
A couple of months ago.

7. In Indie music videos, what do you expect to see and why?
I expect to see the instruments and the artists themselves.

8. Do you expect different things from different indie artists?
Erm, personally yes, but there are different types of indie music, therefore I think there are different expectations.

Audience Research Results

After we wrote the interview questions, various people, male and female, were asked these questions and these are the results.

Jessica Quinn, 18
Indie Fan

1. What clothes do you wear?
I tend to follow the trends of most female indie artists, so normally dresses with cropped jackets and ankle boots. When the weather changes I swap the dresses with tight skinny jeans or leggings. My wardrobe is mainly filled with these style of clothes but in the morning I just through together the pieces of clothing depending on what mood I wake up in.

 
2. Do you follow the same style as the indie artists you like?
I would say so, yeah. I love identifying the artists' new trends when I see them in magazines and on television.

3. Do you see indie artists as an icon/role model?
As Indie artists follow what they believe in and so do I, I guess so. The trend is set by the artist following in what they believe in, however I see the fashion and dress sense as more of an icon for me.

4. What are the key aspects that attract you to indie music?
I love the individuality that each artist has and their connection to the music.

5. Do you go to gigs on a regular basis?
Sometimes, but not on a regular basis.


6. When was the last gig that you went to?
I think the last one I went to was a couple of weeks ago in my town, which was amazing! The band were also local.

7. In Indie music videos, what do you expect to see and why?
I want to see the artist a lot, I don't like it if they remain too anonymous. The clothing is important as well as many indie fans can connect to the fashion of the artist!

8. Do you expect different things from different indie artists?
Ermm, yeah I think so because there are different types of indie genres, so for each off shoot of Indie, the audience expect different things.

The trend our group noticed in Jessica's answers is the fact that she follows the trends of fashion, so this is something we will consider when we create our music video.

Interview Questions

For our research about the genre we are planning to use in our music video, we created questions that we could ask members of the public in an interview. This research will be useful because the needs of the audience has to be satisfied and ultimately, we have to reflect their needs to make a good music video. Here are the interview questions:

1. What clothes do you wear?


2. Do you follow the same style as the indie artists you like?


3. Do you see indie artists as an icon/role model?


4. What are the key aspects that attract you to indie music?


5. Do you go to gigs on a regular basis?


6. When was the last gig that you went to?


7. In Indie music videos, what do you expect to see and why?


8. Do you expect different things from different indie artists?

Location Planning

As we are in the process of deciding where we are going to film our music video, we came up with a list of locations for where we need to film. So far the list is as follows:

The Croat (basically a path/bridge over a small river just outside our school)

Archways near the school reception

The School Library

The Hall

Last week, I went around the school aiming to take photos of these locations, however, at the moment I have only managed to take pictures of the first two as the other locations were in use at the time. Therefore, today Amelia managed to take some more photos of all the locations and they will be posted on a different post on this blog later today.

Statistics for Audrianna Cole - Misplaced

Information from YouTube:

Total views: 4,165
Likes: 33
Dislikes: 1

There are 13 comments on the video and these include: "amazing!!!" and "cool video". As it is a niche song and she is unsigned, there are no "Top Comments" with 49 likes as yet!
This video is most popular with:
Gender         Age
Female         13-17
Female         18-24
Male            35-44

The fact that the males appear slightly older is because lots of young people may lie about their age to create a YouTube account. However, another possibility could be that older men are watching this video as there may be a form of sex appeal for them, and the reason there isn't an audience for men in their 20's is because most women their age are less covered up then 35-44 year old women.
The chart below shows the popularity of this video around the world. The dark green means more popularity and the lighter colours with less popularity. The chart indicates that most of the viewers are American and a few of the viewers are British:

Camera Angles Prezi

To prepare us for the creation of our music video, Amelia and I made a Prezi (a website which enables the user to create what appears to be a never-ending whiteboard). The one we made was about camera angles, focusing on how and why they were done in the way the are. In class, we have also been watching music videos from Eminem and One Night Only, focusing on narratives and camera angles to ensure that we create a realistic looking music video.

http://prezi.com/2wgaj63ffppf/similar-music-videos/

http://prezi.com/wnygb0dgtlx2/copy-of-to-understand-technical-conventions-of-a-music-video/

http://prezi.com/urspexlyqbk8/to-understand-technical-conventions-of-a-music-video/

Digipack Planning

This barcode and BBM code will be useful for our digipack when it comes to creating one.

Chosen Song

This is the song we have chosen for our music video. Our group went onto the Unsigned website and we found her. We decided the video needed a narrative and a song like this would enable us to meet the criteria set.

Look and Image - Indie Music Video Analysis

This video is not necessarily indie-aimed, but there are obvious indie themes in this video. For instance, the way the words "I'll save your seat" appear on the van is a typical convention of the indie genre.
When the man is carrying the bright blue balloons, the colour especially ties in well with the summer theme.
In terms of her actual image, she always wears similar clothes in her music videos, normally shorts and a tank top. The fact that everything is colourful, even her bicycle wheels, ties in with her fashion sense and the front cover of her album, which definitely stands out!
She is cycling towards the camera which helps the viewer perceive this as a narrative and helps the audience relate to an artist identity.