EvaluationBeth Dobson

How do my products use, develop and challenge forms and conventions or real media products?

The CD cover that I designed have all of the recommended/conventional features that you’d expect to find on a standard CD cover. The conventional features that my CD case has is the artist name, the album title, the song listing, the barcode, copyright information and the image of the artist. I have challenged these conventions by rearranging the key features in a different formation than usual. The image has been edited to look more like a sketch, originally I change adjusted the hue and saturation of the colour of the image, it used the colours purple, green as the main colours (the image is shown below. I designed the cover in this way because I admired Andy Warhol’s work and I wanted my design to be unique and attractive, I also achieved this design by styling the models hair in curlers, this gave the image a 60’s housewife look, I have continued the use of curlers in my music video to follow the theme. The main image was influenced by Andy Warhol’s famous pop art designs of famous people such as Marilyn Monroe. Usually the song list is listed vertically, I have challenged this by categorising it into 2 columns horizontally . This makes the layout interesting and attractive to customers. On a conventional CD cover, the song list on the back of the CD which is what I have followed out, I designed/practised the font size and layout a number of times until I was happy with the final one which is show on the right. The design of the back of the CD cover looks like a parcel, the lines look like ribbons wrapped around a present, this could represent a gift and encourage people to buy the CD as a gift to there friends or family.

Continued... In this section I will be comparing my project to the conventional features of a real media product. Below shows 5 conventional features I have used in my music video:

1. Props

2. Main focal point (artist)

3. Fast Cuts4. Vast scenery and locations

5. The artist is portrayed to look good and important

The song a Kiss with a Fist by Florence and the Machine gives off a fun vibe, the genre of the song is Post-punk revival, indie rock and pop. My music video follows the conventions as it is staring the main artist who is seen as the main focal point who is seen all the way through the video. Florence and the Machine is predominantly “popular” in style. The locations I have used in the video are ambiguous as the audience will never know exactly what the building is, the locations are outside, in a music practice room and then in a room.

Changes Made...In my final music video I have changed the establishing shot with

new footage, because the original was filmed on my mobile phone, so the quality was dramatically different to the quality captured from the camcorder. The new footage allows the audience to see the accuracy of the artists’ lip-syncing and also the quality is clearer and sharper. Another feature I have added in my music video is some ‘Stop Motion’ footage, the reason why I decided to use ‘Stop Motion’ is because it makes the music video more diverse, unpredictable and interesting. With the ‘Stop Motion’ being mixed in with a conventional music video, transforms the video into something unconventional, because its a technique you don’t usually see mixed.

Camera AnglesSince my first draft I have included different camera angles and shots , here they are

listed below:

Mid- Shot (Establishing)- This is the opening shot where the artist is standing over a male partner, the scene shows her aggressively shouting at him, whilst he is innocently unaware whilst reading a book), throughout this scene she is consistently stood over him which represents dominance.

Long Shot- This short length scene captures the artist walking towards the camera to then throw snow at the camera on the lyric “bed”. I wasn't going to use this clip however I received great feedback about it and was encourage to use it in my final video.

Medium Close-up (High Angle Shot)- This scene captures the artist lying on a the floor on a white sheet, looking directly at the camera.

Close-up (Hand held camera effect)- This scene captures the artist lying on a the floor on a white sheet, looking directly at the camera.

High Angle and Canted Shot- This scene captures the artist lying sideways on a the floor on a white sheet, which makes it a Canted angle shot. This scene the artist is looking away from the camera.

Long Shot – This scene has been captured in the hand held technique. This clip shows a natural side to the artist where she is having fun , playing on the drums. This shows an affectionate, loveable side to the audience that would encourage/ touch a wider heart felt audience.

Extreme Close-up Shot – This scene focuses on the artists lips, originally I filmed this scene when the artist wasn’t wearing any lipstick, however after negative feedback I decided that I need to remake this scene, so we re-filmed when the artist was wearing bright pink lipstick, this gives off a feminine look about the artist and keeps the audience watching.

Medium Shot- This scene is ‘Stop Motion’ where I took over 100 images of the artist wiping back her smudged make-up for it to end up polished and perfect at the end of the video. The order I took the photos in were when the artist started with perfect make-up and then slowly smudged it on her face, when importing the images I reversed them so the process would catch the eye of the audience. This idea was influenced from Marina and The Diamonds music video of ‘I Am Not A Robot’. Here the curlers in the hair follows the signature image used in all of my ancillary products.

Medium Shot This scene involves two separate footages, the background video, is flames that I captured at home at the fireplace. I then saved it as a video and then projected it onto a white screen and then had my artist perform whilst being projected on, the fire represents the lyrics “set fire to our bed” from the song. This scene is a unconventional scene, usually music videos would use a green screen so the flames would be behind the artist where as I thought the video would look more effective when the fire was portrayed on the artist as well as the background. This scene was influence by Rihanna- ‘We Found Love’ music video.

Medium Close-up Shot

Close-up Shot – This scene focused on the foot hitting the drum peddle at the same pace as the beat. The idea of a heel shows the artist is feminine.

Medium Shot Medium Close-upThis scene is set outside where the artist stands in front of a pebbled wall, this makes the music video look urban and edgy, that could encourage a wider audience.

SurveyA few weeks ago I researched existing music videos that follow the same genre I have chosen for my music video. Over the past few days I have set out a survey asking 20 members of the general public on there opinion on my final designs.

Here are survey questions (rate out of 10) alongside the results (average score):

What did you think about the editing (cuts/pace/quality)? 8/10

Was there a variety of costumes used? 6/10

Is there a good use of locations? 7/10

Did the lips move at the correct timing? 9/10

My CollectionsCD Cover (Front, Back and Side),

Magazine Advert and Single Cover

CD Cover

Magazine Advert

Single Cover

Development CD Cover (Front and Side), Magazine

Advert and Single Cover

Stages:

CD Front Cover

Stages:

CD Back Cover

Stages: Magazine Advert

Stages: Single Cover

Most of the project was independent however at times I did work in groups for a few different reasons. One was help for the filming, I needed someone to play the music and someone to star in the video. Another time was for positive feedback and constructive criticism. I made sure I helped others as much as I could by commenting on there blog the positives and negatives of there products. By observing the faults of others work it helped me to avoid making similar mistake on my projects. Also when observing I saw difference admirable ideas that I could then incorporate into my own work. Finally receiving feedback from my peers helped me to achieve the best that I can do, each one of us were very honest because we all wanted to do well in this project.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

On the right is a comment I have sent to a fellow pupil. I have gave her constructive criticism as well as positive feedback.

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

During the construction of my media project I have used 4 different types of software. For the image I used Macromedia Fireworks and Microsoft picture tool and for the video editing I have used Pinnacle Studios and Windows Movie Maker. For the construction of my media product I have used two pieces of software that I have used predominately for many projects in the past. Although I was familiar with the both types of software I was still learning and adapting new skills, the main editing techniques that I used were the brightness, contrast and colour of the image. I experimented a lot with the colours until I was happy to consider the simple yet effective black and white which falls perfectly against the green and pink banner alongside it.When editing my music video I used an updated version of Windows Movie Maker which was something that I wasn’t use to, it was a complete transformation from the original Windows Movie Maker that I had used in previous years. This software was very time consuming as I needed to learn how to use all of the features, fortunately after a couple of practices I then soon picked it up, and have made all of my video with Movie Maker. Pinnacle is a more advanced software compared to Windows however Pinnacle takes a while to load up so now I only consider Pinnacle when I need to download my filming off the camcorder onto the computer. Below is the Microsoft Picture Tool Bar that I used for editing photos:

Here is a print screen of Windows Movie Maker:

Overall how effective is the combination of your main products and your ancillary products?

My main product and ancillary products are bright, unique, attractive. My ancillary products follows a consistent image with the artist wearing the curlers in her hair, this look represents a 1940’s house wife look. The aim of this image is to re invent/modernise the 40’s look which will catch the eye of customers and increase the sales of the product. The products all include conventional features such as the main image, title and sponsors. Another convention that is seen effective is the title/name that I have consistently used on all of the ancillary features, the title has a unique “signature” look, the A is the key feature to the title, I have designed it to look bigger than the rest of the text and it has a more handwritten affect with the flick.