Danielle Bridge

Media Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product? (Question 1)

The title of the song I used for my music video was Adele’s ‘Turning Tables’, which is based around the pop genre. The lyrics suggest love and heartbreak, which is a very common, conventional, meaning behind many pop songs. As a group, we decided to set the music video predominantly on a beach, with some shots also being on the road side. We gained inspiration from Coldplay’s video ‘Yellow’, as that was also set on a beach. As the lyrical meaning of our chosen song is love, heartbreak and fighting back, we decided that filming our music video on a deserted beach overlooked by dull, grey, skies would be a good way to use Stuart Halls theory and encode conventional features of a pop song for the audience to decode, as it creates a vibe of sadness and heartbreak. However, the bareness of the beach and the aggressiveness of the waves could also represent a battlefield, enhancing the fact that the female artist is fighting back against her heartbreak and not giving up. This challenges the stereotype of the pop genre and the female gender, as it represents the female as strong and independent, which is not usually encoded within the pop genre, as women are usually represented as weak and vulnerable. We decided to challenge these conventions to make the music video an instance of difference, rather than repetition (Neale). We also gained a small amount of inspiration for the location of our filming from Girls Aloud’s video ‘Call The Shots’, as there are shots of the females on a ‘battleground’ setting.

The female artist in the video is wearing a deep red coloured dress, in which we have encoded to represent femininity and also love, which are conventional connotations of the pop genre. However, the majority of the red dress is covered by a karki coloured, military-like, parka coat. This choice in costume amplifies the idea that the female is fighting back, and shows that she is strong and is battling against heartbreak, again challenging the conventional elements of the pop genre and the representation of the female character. We have also purposely encoded this to enhance the battle ground like setting, as it creates a war-like atmosphere.

Throughout our music video, there are several props that have deliberately been used to create meaning. Towards the beginning of the video, we used a close up of a mobile phone prop, showing a message that talks about love and the couple reuniting. Mobile phones are conventional props seen in pop music videos, as they represent communication, usually between two individuals. We encoded this conventional feature for the audience to decode and also to reassure them that our music video is based around the pop genre. This would create a preferred reading for pop genre fans, as it is following the conventions. Also, towards the middle of our video, there is a close up shot of a photo of the female artist and a male, showing the couple when they were happy. Using photographs to show a relationship is very conventional of many genres, especially pop, which is why we encoded this feature, as the audience are then able to decode it and understand the meaning behind the song’s lyrics. There are also shots of the female engraving heart shapes into the sand on the beach, which again, represents the theme of love, following the stereotypical conventions of the pop genre. There is a car used in the final sequence of the music video, showing the female driving away and leaving the burning photograph behind, highlighting the fact that she has moved on, which is a convention of a love song and also the pop genre. Through the use of these

Danielle Bridge

props and costumes, the audience may be able to identify with the female character or the situation, creating a use and gratification.

The music video my group and I have created begins with a close up shot of the female artists face, looking sad and depressed, and the camera then zooms out to reveal her body and location of the stormy beach. This creates a contrast between the conventional and unconventional features we have encoded of the pop genre; showing a facial expression representing heart break, which is conventional, and then revealing a battlefield-like setting, which is unconventional. This shot also introduces the artist, informing the audience as to whom she is, and, along with the piano riff, announces that this song is a love ballad. We chose to use mainly close up shots of the props we used, as it highlights their significance within the video and the narrative of the video. For the camera shots of the artist performing parts of the song, we used a range of shot types such as; long shots, medium shots, close ups and extreme close ups. This was done because we felt that by using different shots, it would anchor the audience more, and intrigue them into watching the video. Towards the end of the video, there is a close up shot of the text message being deleted. Similar to this, at the very end of the video, there is an extreme close up shot of the previous photograph prop burning on the ground. These shots highlight the significance of the props, and also show that the artist has overcome her heartbreak, which is seen as a conventional feature of the pop genre.

As a group, we decided to use a black and white filter and also slowed the speed down on a few shots to emphasise the sadness of the song, and the lyrical meaning. Slow motion is used widely throughout many music videos, so this can be seen as a conventional feature of any genre, as it enhances certain messages and meanings within the song or video. To allow the conventional linear narrative and the different shots flow smoothly, we used cross dissolve transitions to link some shots. This also enhances the slowness of the song, and reassures the audience that it is a slow long pop song. Along with this, we also used continuity editing to help the narrative continue and progress. At the end of the music video, as the piano riff is fading out, we decided to use a fade to black to finish the video, which represents the end of the narrative, and it informs the audience that the artist has overcome her heartbreak and moved on; which is also shown by the car driving away from the beach scene. Even though the narrative is conventional, there are also some challenges that we made to this. The shots of the text message being deleted, and the burning photograph, show that the artist has got over her relationship, which represents the artist as strong and independent. The female is usually seen as the weak, vulnerable character in music videos, and the video does not usually conclude the heartbreak, however ours does; therefore challenging the conventions of a pop video.

For my ancillary tasks, I created a CD front cover, back cover and disk label, and also a magazine advertisement using adobe Photoshop. There are many ways in which the pop genre is reflected within my ancillary tasks; however there are also challenges to these conventions and stereotypes. Whilst researching three similar products to my ancillary tasks, I found that most album covers of the pop genre, such as Jessie J’s album ‘Who You Are’, use a sans serif font in order to appeal to their younger target audience. So, using this research, I decided to use a sans serif font that almost looks handwritten. I used this as I felt it would appeal to a wider audience, and also follows the conventions of the pop genre. The name of my artist ‘Ivy’ is printed in a red colour, similar to the colour of her dress in my music video. This is representing love and also femininity, again, following the conventions of this genre. However the album name of ‘turning tables’ is printed in a black

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colour, which is not stereotypical of the pop genre, as it contrasts with the red colour, and represents rebellion, and is usually seen within the rock genre.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? (Question 2)

For my ancillary texts, I used Photoshop to create a CD front and back cover, a disk label and also a magazine advertisement. All of these texts have synergy in many ways with my main product of a music video.

The main image on my CD front cover and my magazine advertisement is a close up of a young female. I manipulated the image to make it black and white, as I found that this is a common convention within the pop genre, as it adds to the overall effect of the image or shot type. Within my music video, I decided to put a black and white video effect on some shots to enhance the characters feelings and the mood of the song. This creates synergy, as my CD cover reflects my main product, making it easy for the audience to realise that the CD belongs to the music video. Even though the black and white effect on my ancillary tasks is slightly harsher than it is on the main product, it is still easy to identify that they belong together.

The character that I used within my music video is the same female I photographed for both my ancillary tasks. I did this to make it easier for the audience to understand that they are all part of the same product, therefore creating synergy.

On my ancillary tasks, I used a sans serif font for my artist name ‘Ivy’ and the album name ‘turning tables’. The main colours I used were red and black, which symbolise love, and also danger. This relates to my music video as it reflects the lyrical meaning of the song, and also the narrative within my music video. The narrative suggests that the female is heartbroken and trying to overcome a relationship, which symbolises both love and danger, creating synergy amongst my ancillary tasks and my final music video.

It is easily noticeable that the genre that my ancillary tasks are based around is the pop genre, as I used many conventional features such as; a sans serif font, red lettering, a black and white effect and a close up portrait shot. It is also identifiable which genre of music my music video is based around, because my group and I encoded many conventional features of the pop genre such as; the black and white effect, the use of a mobile phone, a burning photograph and a female character. So, even though I did not encode as many conventions of the pop genre on my ancillary tasks, there is still some synergy between them and my main product, as the audience can still realise that my CD cover and my magazine advertisement go alongside my final music video.

My finished product relates to a real media product as I have used many existing conventions of the pop genre, and I have gained inspiration from existing media products. I used my research to make my final products as realistic as possible, in order to attract an audience. So therefore, if my final products were exhibited within the real media industry, the audience would be able to understand that my ancillary texts and my final music video do relate to each other, as they have synergy.

Overall, I believe that synergy has been created successfully; as I believe that my ancillary texts and main products do look quite similar. Even though some aspects were quite difficult to include in both my ancillary texts and my final music video, such as house style or font design, I still believe that I created synergy between the two products as best as I possibly could have.

Danielle Bridge

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? (Question 4)

Whilst completing my A2 media coursework, I used a range of media technologies to construct and present my final pieces such as; Panasonic cameras, adobe Photoshop, adobe premiere, iPhone 5, facebook, slideshare, blogger and many more.

The software ‘adobe Photoshop’ has helped me create many pieces of coursework to support my final music video. To begin with, I had to use the internet to research CD covers, back covers and disk labels and then use this research to create my two ancillary tasks, which were a CD front and back cover and the disk label, and also a magazine advertisement. Whilst using Photoshop to create these pieces of work, my skills have developed greatly, and I have learned many new ways to edit and manipulate a photograph. Some of the techniques I used included the brightness/contrast of an image, the clone tool, Gaussian blur and the saturation of the image. I now know how to use these tools and techniques to the best of my editing ability. I also had to alter the size of the page within Photoshop to get it at a CD cover size, and I had to import my own images, and text from ‘dafont.com’, in order to construct my ancillary tasks.

Adobe premiere has also been a huge part of my A2 coursework, as this is the software my group and I used to edit and complete our music video of ‘turning tables’. This software is quite complex and difficult to use to begin with, however after adjusting to it and learning how to control it, it became easier the more we began to edit. There a many functions involved with adobe premiere and certain adjustments that must be made before even beginning to edit. To begin with, we had to set up a project on premiere, which involved changing the quality to standard and the size to widescreen, as this is what our video footage required. We then had to import all of our video footage into premiere in order to begin editing. On each shot we filmed, we had to choose a start point and an end point before dragging the clip onto the video timeline, to ensure that we were only working with the sections that we wanted in our final music video. This was quite difficult, as we frequently found ourselves adjusting the start and end point after we had dragged it onto the timeline, in order to make the shot the best it could be, however this got easier once we had gotten familiar with it. For our final shot, we needed to film more footage, so we used an iPhone 5, as this was more convenient and easier to upload the footage onto the computer. However, we then realised that in order to make this shot fit with the rest of the shots, we had to scale of all of our other footage to width: 133 under the motion tab. Once we had altered the framing, we overcome this barrier and continued to edit as usual. My group and I used many techniques to edit out footage in adobe premiere which included transitions such as ‘cross dissolve’; video effects such as ‘black and white’; and we also slowed down and sped some footage up. As a group, we felt that the other types of dissolves and transitions did not fit well with our type of music video or the audio track, therefore this was a huge limitation whilst editing. We also used the ‘razor’ tool to cut a few shots, and also to cut our audio track, which I found extremely helpful and easy to use.

To present all of my work, I had to use google blogger, in which I then had to create 6 separate tags to display my work in the correct stages of production. In order to put word documents onto my blog, I had to first upload these documents onto a website called slideshare, and then copy and

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place the embedded code onto the HTML tab on blogger. I found this process quite simple, and I was able to understand how to work both websites quite quickly.

During the process of completing my coursework, I have used technological convergence, as media technologies have come together to help me in the production, distribution and consumption stages. In the production stage, I used both an apple iPhone 5 and a Panasonic video camera to capture video footage, in which I then uploaded, using a USB cable, onto the computer. My group and I then used the same computer machine to edit this footage using adobe premiere to create our final music video. To distribute our final outcome, we used the same computer to upload our video onto YouTube, and then onto our blogs using blogger, to share with other people. An audience would then be able to use web 2.0 and watch our music video using YouTube.