Media Technologies

Blogger played a big tool in all parts of this assignment as every stage that was completed, had to be put on blogger for practical evidence. I first began using blogger to present tbe research found on music videos. It was a useful and organised method of presenting the research and planning involved in creating this music video, as well as the digipak and advert. Adding images, animations and audio clips were complimentary additions to the work presented on blogger.

YouTube was frequently used throughout my research stage as there were tasks which involved researching certain genre music videos, or researching the history of music videos. As YouTube is so widely used this was an efficient tool as anything i searched came up with many results. For example, i was searching R&B music videos frequently as this is the genre our video was based on.



Final Cut Express, a professional application used to edit video software became a very useful tool as this is where all the editing for our video took place. At first, i couldn't use this editing software because i was so used to using basic i-Movie which was very simplistic. After a few tutorials and experiments, final cut express became much easier to use and became the answer to my group's video problems.






Adobe Photoshop was the programme i used to edit the images i took for my digipak and poster. i had previous experience using adobe Photoshop throughout media so it wasn't hard to get the hang of to begin editing my digipak products. The effects in Photoshop allowed my poster and digipak to look more professional once completed.






A camera was inevitabally essential in the whole process as this is what me and my group used to film our music video, and what i later used to take the still images for my digipak and poster. The camera was useful in all aspects of this task as everything we did, we needed proof to later show on our blogs.



A tripod was also just as useful as the camera, as this allowed us to complete smooth filming scenes without the shakiness of having the camera handheld. Some of the members of our focus group said that in some scenes the shots were distorted due to shakiness which was due to some scenes being filmed without a tripod.

Audience Feedback

Below is the feedback i gained on my my music video from my target audience . In order to gain back constructive feedback, i did a number of things for my fellow peers to complete so that i could find out a range of some of the strengths and weaknesses of my music video, as well as the DigiPak and poster. Me and my group used questionnaires in order to gain back detailed responses from our focus group.

- Questionnaires 

There were a variety of responses that we got back which was helpful towards us as it helped us to notice what to improve on if given the chance to do this again in the future.

How would you define the image of Emerald Jones in our video?

According to our focus group, Emerald Jones came across a strong, independent female which most of our audience said they were able to empathise with. This was good as our initial idea for Emerald Jones was for her to come across to our audience as bold and independent yet still able to connect to the emotions of the song.

Do you think the visuals fit the genre of RnB? Please elaborate

As R&B usually tends to have mainly african-american singers and characters in their videos, our audience agreed that the overall genre of the video was not focused on R&B but also the genre POP, as most of the visuals in the video would either relate to this or R&B.  For example, in a stereotypical R&B video, the singers are usually made to wear small provocotive clothing and be dominated by the male character in order to appeal to the male audience. In contrast to this, in my music video Emerald Jones wears full bold, sassy clothing and the female character dominates the male role. 

What would you say are the strengths of our video?

The main strengths that most of the focus group agreed on was the consistency of the scenes edited throughout the music video, especially with the characters in the video. One member of the focus group said ''The fight scenes make the video more realistic as the black and white creates the sense of  a drainage in the relationship.' It was also said that the narrative and performance based concepts were clear to the audience from the beginning of the video.

What would you say are the weaknesses of our video?

The main weaknesses of our music video was that most scenes in our music video tended to linger on for too long which made it look like a short film instead of a music video. It was also said that the lighting in some of the performance based scenes in the video was too dark which ruined the visuals for the audience.  

Does the video remind you of any other popular RnB video?

There were a lot of references towards TLC - Waterfalls, as this video and our video had the same idea of the singer being the narrator and telling the story whilst singing. 

- Focus Group 

Above is the picture of the focus group session which took place so that i could gain some feedback about my DigiPak products. I gathered a small group of girls aged 16+ to take part in a focus group as 'Leaving' is more feminine, therefore i thought young adult females would be the most suitable audience to take part in the focus group. I asked them the same questions as the ones i used for the questionnaire, but asked for more detailed responses and gained the following feedback on my music video, which i have presented in the table below.

Pros	Cons
Lip Syncing – The Lip Syncing looked real throughout the video which helped the overall music video to look real.	Lighting– The lighting in some of our performance based scenes didn’t look as good because it was too dark to see.
Narrative Concept (acting) – The actors we chose stuck in their role and delivered a believable performance as a couple.	Camera Movement – In some scenes the camera movement was jolty which ruined the quality of the video.
Editing - The video wasn’t crammed with effects which helped it to look more effective rather than over doing it. Smooth transitions from once scene to another.	Editing – Some of the scenes which were filmed lingered on for too long so made the music video look like it was a short film instead.

If given the chance to do this task again,me and my group would have a lot of constructive criticism to use and to help us work on our video to further improve it. For example, i could add artificial lighting to the location background where filming takes place in order to ensure that there's a sufficient amount of light. The tripod would constantly have to be used when filming, even if filming the shortest clips as my group have found out that it does make a difference when using one. To avoid the music video looking like a short film, when editing, transitions could be added in to the ending of each scene to ensure the swift change. 

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? 

On completing my final product, Digipak and poster to advertise this, initial planning was involved as to how i would promote my products across to my audience, without ruining the overall genre of my music video. I had to think of a good colour scheme which my audience could relate to the title of the album 'Lost in Translation' which explains the digipak poster i created.

In producing my Digipak poster, i firstly had to take still images using the HD cameras at school. Along with my group, we booked out a camera and arranged 'photo day's' which we would use to find a time and location which suited my group. As I was the main focus of each members poster, I had to bring along with me costume changes for each photo day which were aimed to what my group members wanted. For Lizzi's photo shoot, the costume which she chose for me to wear was a simple black shirt and black leggings, to reflect the persona of a bold, independent woman. For Megan's photo shoot, she chose for me to wear a white shirt, which complimented the ivory green coat i wore on top as these two colours contrast each other, and had the effect of vulnerability.

For my photo shoot, as I wanted my target audience to be able to engage with the poster and relate it to the album title, i took still images of close up shots of myself which had a dazed expression on my face. This was to reflect the idea of 'Lost' in the album title. The make-up i chose to use was all natural but with bold eye make-up so that was the main feature on my poster and really stood out.

 

For the album cover, I wanted to incorporate the ideas that i had gained from the research and planning of Digipak's. I used a plain peach background, so that the black font used would contrast the pale peach colour. Taken using the HD cameras at school, i took a selection of pictures which i could then use for my DigiPak, and the poster. This photo was chosen as the album cover because there is a blank expression on my face which i thought suited the album title 'Lost in Translation'. I wanted the font to be more feminine as i wanted it to look like it had personally been written by Emerald Jones which is why i chose the font 'Freestyle Script'. 

 

On the back cover, I decided to use an ordinary picture of our singer posing, facing the camera which shows the confidence that she possesses. At first, i was going to crop the singer onto another background but decided that this would look too plain and boring so kept it the same. The choice of costume was a Topshop dress, which the female audience could relate to as it's high street fashion. The way the singer is posed suggests that she's bold and independent. I decided to place the barcode in the bottom right hand corner as on most albums i looked at, this is where they were positioned, so i wanted my audience to be able to recognise that.

 

To create the CD tray, I had to use a CD template and an original picture of myself, merging them together using Photoshop to create the final CD tray. There is a face shot of the artist which instantly engages the audience with her as it's a close-up shot and links them to her eye contact. There is also a smile on her face which is inviting towards the audience and has happy connotations.

Poster

In creating the poster to advertise my Digipak, i used the same photo that is on the album cover, so the audience would be able to link the two together. I wanted to incorporate the ideas that i had gained from the research and planning of Digipak's. I went with the idea of Beyonce's album release called '4'. As she decided to stick with a plain background, and have her picture contrasting the background which looked very effective, i decided i would also do this within my DigiPak. Again, i used a plain peach background which contrasted the black borders i used for the text at the top and bottom of  the page. I chose to use light   pink text as this matched the colour lipstick that the singer was wearing, but in bold so it popped out against the black. The bold make-up used suggests a bold persona which is the aura i wanted to give out to the audience about the singer.