Tuesday 10 May 2011

What happened to my Music Video!
Throughout this coursework I have experienced multiple problems, but the one that I encountered on the last hurdle was the biggest so far as parts of my music video were corrupted as the servers crashed around the time they were going to be moderated. This was so frustrating as I spent so much time and effort on this video (as did everyone else) however my video from my class seemed to have been the only one to be corrupt, with three media files going offline.

My teachers and I decided it would be best if I re-entered this coursework so I could get the grade I deserved, so I looked at the music video and finished on time for it to be moderated. Hoping that this would be the best version.

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Wednesday 5 January 2011

EVALUATION 4


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






1. I used purevolume.com to search for my chosen artist, this was to see if there were any artists who were unsigned and that I was able to use, luckily I found Whitney Wiatt. You could easily tell if they were unsigned or not as they had the word pro next to their name, which was to distinguish who were the professionals. This all goes to the research and planning stages!


2. I used twitter on my phone to get in contact with the artist and I was really happy that she replied straight away. Using twitter shows how it is so easy to contact people; they can see the update on their own Twitter and reply straight away! This aspect is part of the researching stage.


3. I used Google Blogger to update my blog for when I had done something new because we used these last year as well, I am now a whizz at being a blogger and it is actually quite fun! This was used to basically show my progress throughout the making of the video and to show the research throughout the planning and development, so you could say that managing my blog covers all stages.


4. I used a video camera (and a tripod) similar to the one in this picture, to shoot the music video, this was to capture the making of the video, it also shows you how compact and easy to use it is, for people like me who are by themselves making a music video - it is easy to hold and no fuss will This is again an aspect of the development stage yet construction stage also.


5. I used the Apple Mac to edit my video into the final product, using Final Cut Express to create the music video.We used this format because it has a range of transitions and effects which are used in the media industry, so it is helping us learn the techniques you need if you want to have a job in the editing field and it also helped to give my video a professional look. This was all for the construction and development stages!


6. I used Adobe Photoshop to create my ancillary text digipak and the background for the Magazine Advert, this is because it was an easier way to do it because I have the experience of using it, again it gives it a more professional feel to the pictures. This is part of the construction stage.


7. I used Microsoft Publisher to create my ancillary text - the Magazine Advert, this was because it was again easier to construct an advert as you can simply place the pieces where you wanted them; like a jigsaw puzzle, again this is part of the construction stage.


8. I used Hotmail to send my products to my school account so I can hand in both ancillary texts so they could be evaluated and for the Magazine Advert (to be put together on Publisher on my school user), this is part of planning and construction.


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EVALUATION 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?


The audience feedback I received from my peers gave me a push to finish my final music video. They were honest and gave me constructive criticism which consisted of me tightening up my lip syncing because it was lagging at the time. Also partly because I had not finished my music video (a few parts were missing - such as a few transitions and the odd shot) I knew I had to work hard as they each told me to work on the blanks. I was pleased to see/hear that they thought the lighting looked amazing -especially how it glowed upon Imogen's pretty face/frame - because that was what I wanted to achieve, Imogen as  a country singer - looking happy in her surroundings. They also agreed with each other that the framing and shots were nice and steady, and worked well with the overall video and made the story make more sense, with the help of the transitions also. The transitions they said worked with the video as it flowed more to tell the story and the setting and characters were appropriate for the video. They also thought that the shots made the narrative make sense; seeing Harleigh and Will's argument being easily distinguished through facial expressions and gestures by the close up shots and mid shots, which also showed the progression of their relationship, an aspect that I wanted to get across to the audience.


With the ancillary texts they thought the ideas that came across were really good and the colours linked with the overall theme of the whole package - love/romance - so because of this I was really happy as it was what I intended to do from the beginning, everything needed to link together. They thought it was imaginative and well thought out, however Nick thought it would have been clever to have the petals of the flower on the ground for the back cover of the album, like Imogen had picked them off herself while saying 'He loves me, he loves me not' the idea was really good but sadly the rose I used was fake, so this could not have been achieved.


So because of their feedback throughout the process of making a music video, I think they have really helped me on my growing knowledge and made it what it is as they pushed me to work harder, which I am grateful for!

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Thursday 16 December 2010

Tuesday 14th December 2010

EVALUATION 2
How effective is the main product and the ancillary texts?

I'll firstly explain why I chose to create the album cover the way I did and the reasons behind those choices:
The Front Cover
I chose to show Imogen - the artist - as quite vulnerable and alone, her looking at the rose symbolises her longing for the boy she likes to finally tell her if he likes her too, hence the title "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" - which also links back to how Harleigh feels about Will in the music video. The colour scheme is black and white with the rose and the album title in red. This is because I wanted to connote the colour red as the love she feels for the boy and deepens the meanings of the other songs on the album. Love is the overall theme throughout the album and the video, so I wanted to incorporate this in both ancillary texts to suggest the meaning further and also make it easier for the audience to understand. The font for the artists name is bold and in capitals to make her name really stand out because it's her first album and I wanted it to be noticed. The album title "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" is in the style of handwriting and italicized, as I wanted to make it seem like she has doodled her thoughts out onto a page, which is a huge contrast to the artists name and the album title itself.

The Back Cover

This shows Imogen walking away from the rose, I did this because I want the audience to really think of distinction of the front and back, asking questions like "why has she walked away? Is it because she's given up on waiting". A real sense of ambiguity is being thrown out to the audience here, as I really want them to use their own interpretation, letting their imaginations run free. Again it goes back to the colour scheme of red, black and white, this is because I wanted to keep it consistent and not look too mis-matchy, otherwise the overall theme would not really have a purpose.
The Left Inside Cover
This cover has the acknowledgements on it because I wanted to show the audience who the artist was grateful too. I wrote it as if it was the artist herself as I did have a few thanks to share also. The image shows Imogen looking up, I did this because I wanted it to look as if she was looking up at her thoughts in her head, and the smile on her face represents her thanks. The colour scheme is black and white, however Imogen and her thanks are in colour signifiying she is happy and 'loving life'. Again the font is in the style of handwriting to portray that she is memorising what she wrote down, and the colour is pink to connote love again.

The Right Inside Cover 
Finally, the last part of the digipak! The right inside cover of the album cover, is where I have put the CD. I showed hands holding the flower - the background is a black and white version and the CD is a really colourful version to distinguish the good and bad times of relationships. The black and white version symbolises the bad moments, although the CD (colourful version) shows how exciting it can be. Two very contrasting moments. This again relates to reality and how people live through bad and good relationships. The album cover is basically representing the video in still image form, we see Harleigh's love life in moving image and how misleading relationships can be and because of this, I have incorporated the flower as the overall decider in the album cover. The album cover was designed in Photoshop, this way was a much easier solution to being really creative and it really helped to make the images stand out.


I changed my idea from the planning process because I thought it would be better to link the whole project with the theme, love, so the Hummingbird idea wouldn't work because it connotes nature, whereas a red rose symbolises love. I thought this idea of incorporating the red rose would work better with the theme of love/relationship towards the audience as it would be easily distinguishable if they were searching for the artist in a shop or online.


The magazine advert.
What I did here was to show the flower in snow and I made the colour deep red to entice readers to look at the picture of the flower. The flower is in the advert as it corresponds with the album - the theme of love, with the red flower symbolising love. Also any flower is a major contributor to saying "I'm sorry" or "I love you", so I thought it would be good if I put the flower as the main focus on the magazine article as it focuses love. The colour scheme is yet again black, white and red, however black is not the main colour this time. White is the overall colour as a it is a bright colour which would catch readers attention in a magazine, also I didn't want to stray away from the running theme, as then it wouldn't really have a purpose, which is what I intended to do in the planning process. The font is more suitable for girls, just because it looks more appealing to their eyes and they were my target audience as I believe they would prefer the songs on the album. As you can see there are some comments from The Guardian Music Review and Radio 1, I decided on these two as they have a dramatic input into the way we listen to music, so I thought why don't they make a comment about the album?
Finally the albums front cover is on the bottom right hand corner, as I want the readers to be able to recognise the album if they were to see them in any HMV stores - indicated on the advert. I decided on HMV stores because that is the place where most people buy albums they are interested in.
The magazine advert was created on publisher as it was an easier format to use to make everything work together and I could also grab all the elements and place them where I wanted. I designed the background on Photoshop; which is the flower in the snow, for the reason that I could change the contrast and brightness to suit the magazine advert.

New Magazine Advert
The new magazine advert is completely different to the other because I wanted to focus more on the new season and Imogen the artist herself. As the song has the lyrics ‘Just like the seasons he’ll come around’ I thought it would be suitable to have a new season to relate back to the song which links to the video that I created for this coursework. What I did to create this magazine advert was to take a picture of Imogen in her everyday clothes to show her as someone my target audience can relate too – as she is dressed appropriately she would be a suitable role model to young teenagers/young girls. After doing so, I used Photoshop to incorporate all the images I wanted to use together, so by doing so I contrasted and saturated the image of the flowers and used the overlay tool and applied it onto the background of Imogen sitting on the floor underneath the balcony in the Sixth Form building. I then took the image of the flowers again and used the overlay tool to apply it onto the side of Imogen sitting on the floor and changed the opacity of this image so that the audience would be able to distinguish who Imogen is. The flowers together link back to the music video as the theme is of relationships/love and flowers do connote this theme and the vibrant colours represent how you can have exciting moments in your relationships. I kept the font for ‘Whitney Wiatt He Loves Me He Loves Me Not’ because it is the font on the album and would be recognisable for the audience to buy in shops/download. I chose iTunes for the distributing of the album because audiences are more liable to download songs than buy them in shops because it is easier for them to do so. I also chose her record label ‘Big Machine Records’ because they are a Folk, Indie and Acoustic label who strive to support their artists with these genre’s and I put the logo on the advert as again it shows who represent Imogen the singer and why Imogen identifies herself in the way she does.
So there you have it, hopefully you now have a knowledge of why I created the ancillary texts the way I did and the reasons behind them. Thanks for listening!

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Thursday 9 December 2010

Thursday 9th December 2010

EVALUATION PART 1

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










Frame 1: shows the relationship between the lyrics to the visuals, I wanted to incorporate the seasons in the video and I did this by adding pictures of the different seasons - relatig to the lyrics 'Just like the seasons he'll come around' So adding the pictures deepens the meaning of the song and video.


Frame 2: shows Harleigh dancing. The way she swings her arms, compliments the beat, I did this to make it seem she is hitting the beat as she is frustrated that Will (The boy) isn't giving her an answer or the attention she wants/needs to realise that he likes her too. Throughout the music video the shots compliment the lyrics and the overall sound such as 'just like the leaves, he's changing me' sees leaves falling to Harleigh and Will laughing and joking around. This also resembles how teenage romance's are ambiguous, teenagers often refer to couples as 'seeing each other', 'getting together' or 'actually together' and I wanted to convey this to the audience and leave them to interpret Harleigh and Will's relationship for themselves, so they are an active audience.


Frame 3: shows the singer -Imogen - standing alone, being independent and this goes towards Big Machine Records expectations - the record label that Taylor Swift is signed to and have gained 6 Country Music Association Awards, 6 American Music Awards, 4 Academy of Country Music Awards, 4 CMT Music Awards, 3 Teen Choice Awards, 1 MTV Video Music Award as well as 13 GRAMMY Nominations and 5 People’s Choice Award Nominations. As the genre of music is folk, I thought that the best thing to do was dress her to this style of music - like how Taylor Swift represents herself; which is country, so because of this it was important to keep the record label's expectations in hindsight and also to show Imogen as a lover of nature hence why she is walking alone in the heath.


Frame 4: represents the genre as the image is soft and it has a folk location and because of the genre, I wanted to create a country/soft image to really emphasise the meaning behind the song and the artist, also towards the record labels expectations :) so it all links together in the end!


Frame 5: shows the setting/location for the artist. I chose to shoot the music video here as it intensifies the lyrics and really captures the audiences attention on the artist- it's like a one-one conversation, just you and her, she is describing her emotions which involves everyone watching. Also because of the fact she is alone on the heath during sunset it connotes the feeling of sadness - the day is coming to an end which may heighten the heartbreak Harleigh (the main protagonist) feels about her romance with Will, is their romance coming to an end? The audience soon realise that it is just a new beginning with the end of the music video shows them make up, walking hand in hand away from the school.


Frame 6: shows a transition I used to create the video which was additive fade to colour dissolve. I chose dissolves and fades as it compliments the softness on the song and makes it look more proffessional than the other transitions which I could have used. I like my final piece as I think it compels audiences to realise how teenagers act in society today - how they are vulnerable within the society they live in.



Frame 7: shows the natural lighting I have used throughout the video, I did this because I wanted to relate it to reality, thus not changing the lighting. The sunset agaisnt Imogen's face portrays romanticism - linking to the theme of the album itself. Most of the songs on here album are about love itself.


Frame 8: shows the range of costumes used. The first picture - Sarah and Will, and the other with Will and Harleigh, shows how teenagers usually dress for college and how the proxemics/gestures can become intimate and misinterepreted. i chose to keep them dressed relatively casual as Taylor Swifts' video 'Be Mine' shows a normal couple - no hyped up celebrities all glammed up as some other artists portray people. Harleigh's wearing her dancing outfit to show she is dancing, and the colour black also connotes her mood, she doesn't know what it going on with her and Will. Imogen's make up is quite soft yet bright to bring forth how girls will change to be noticed, again relating to society and youth. Also because she is the artist I wanted to show the contrast between the 'real life people' and the 'celebrity' Imogen, I wanted her to look a tad like Swift as she uses her make up to express the moods in her songs.


Frame 9: shows the intertexuality of Taylor Swift's video 'Be Mine'. I was inspired by her video as it also has male - female relationships in jeopardy and gave me ideas on how to show an argument through facial expressions and gestures, which can go with a soft/mellow song.


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Tuesday 23 November 2010

Tuesday 23rd November 2010

More research into my digipak (CD album)

Planning the album covers has been quite hard as again, I can't bounce off anyone's ideas. But I think its finally coming together. The front cover will still be Imogen although she will be on a field instead of in the woods, but I do want to show her as alternative so I will have to think of ways of doing so in a later time. For the back cover, I'm going to paint it and still have the hummingbird idea, but I will paint it instead and make it look really pretty. The inside cover will be acknowledgements and the right inside cover for the CD will have the different seasons in the corners. I want to base my album cover on KT Tunstall's Eye to the Telescope, as hers is really creative!



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Thursday 18 November 2010

Thursday 18th November 2010

MAGAZINE ADVERTS FOR ALBUMS

Louise Aubrie - her name and the album name are shown twice as she wants to be recognised by people. Once she has been recognised she may not feel the need to show her name twice. The use of sans serif font stands out as it is also bold showing again that she wants to be noticed. The picture looks as if she is about to perform on stage, however, she is in a hallway so it doesn't really make any sense why she is set up for a performance when she is standing in a hallway so it loses creative points there for me. Also her eyes are focused on the right hand side with a nervous facial expression; is she looking out towards the audience and is nervous? The colours are pink and black so it looks girly, maybe linking back to her music? The advert has her producers name on it however not a label company, and also has her myspace, so it still shows that she is new to the music industry.



The Verve - The name of the band catches your eye with the black/boldness which contrasts with the gold looking sky/sepia tones in the background - the light shining through the clouds looks like Gods love is shining through for the people. Also the central placing of it looks like a film poster or a book so does not really look like an advert for an album. The font is quite strange, they seem like they are in italics and the album name is in capital letters, suggesting that the album is more important than the band itself. 'The Single' is not in the spotlight so people may think it is an advert for a film because it isn't stated on what it is, although because they know who the band is they may not even think that.

Gwen Stefani - This is a painting of her as a Queen looking serious even though she is slouching in the chair. It has the picture of her album in the right hand bottom corner and this shows her messing around and maybe misusing her royal status? The colours in this advert connote royalty such as the gold and red and also the font. She uses features such as songs, websites, company label etc.

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