Summing up

Over the last year I have been able to use my thoughts and imagination to create and publish my music video, this has not only made my creativity side come alive but it has also helped my research and planning side become more efficient; as you will be able to see.
Not only have I been able to plan effectively but I have been able to show the audience members what it is like to be in the situation that 'love' conquers all. Seemingly as my target audience is in the age range where love feels like the most important thing it is important to me that not only does my music video show that love can hurt and will hurt at times but also that it can take time to get the hate and revenge out of your way of life.
Additionally, my evaluation shows the different types of real media products and it is shown throughout the my presentations and also the way I have been able to present my target audience feedback, production entries and so on.
To sum up the year with the use of different technologies I have been able to create my portfolio in a fun and interactive way, which keeps you the reader entertained and also it brings the element of fun to my media portfolio.

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

This is my evaluation question 3 the task set: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2

This is my question 2 of my evaluation answering the question: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
 

Evaluation Question 1

Here you will find my evaluation to the question 1 task: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Final Draft of my music video

This is my final draft for my music video. I have taken everything that my target audience have said whether that is lip syncing to transitional changes.

Album Advertisement final Draft

This incorporates the colour scheme from the digipak, which shows continuity within my project, and it also shows the light and dark side of love like my digipak and most importantly my video.

Digipak final draft

As i wanted a more professional feel I have decided to make the font black with a white outline, this incorporates the feel of the light and dark like shown in my music video, and also the feel of love through the font used.

Directors commentary

As in every piece of work you always feel like you could do better, but in this case things could have gone a lot worse. I went from two completely different story lines to getting frustrated with transitions, however, I can say not only did I impress myself with the work that I managed to do with this project but I also managed to impress my target audience group to the point that they said they would download the video to watch on an everyday basis.
Furthermore, the differential clips show a unique aspect on the power of love. Love the strong word that gets everyone weak at the knees, in this music video you see the true pain of losing someone you love and this was the plan, to show that in life you can grow stronger from the pain you have been through and that you can always overcome the worst.
The camera angles that I have used in my music video show the emotion of a break up and also the main actress coming through the end. The reflection of the past when she was happy to the pain of the break-up to the end where she comes to terms with being on her own and being okay with it.

The effects that i have used show the contrast between pain that she has been through and the 'happy days'. As you can see the yellow editing shows the happiness of the summer romance, and the darker copper shows the binary opposite.




Not only did producing this music video help my technological skills but it made me  realise how people see music videos and how it can relate to real life. Additionally how it is important to listen and take into consideration all aspects of what your target audience. If i could go back and do anything again it would be learn more technological advance skills to broaden the professionalism of my music video.

Target audience awareness

To get feedback that is recorded and accurate I have put the digipak on my social media site, Facebook, which won't cause inconvenience to my target audience as they can all put what they think on my page and I can take their feedback and amend any changes.

Digipak Draft 2

This is my digipak draft two, I have listened to the feedback from my target audience and incorporated what they have said and taken everything in to consideration. what they would want to see and if it would attract them to buying the album.

Feedback for my digipak second draft

As people in my target audience has a split opinion on the font i have decided to keep the font as it is, as it is the feel that I want the target audience to feel, as the font gives a feel of love and the difference between love and lust.

Feedback from target audience for Digipak

The target audience said a number of things that really helped me understand my digipak from another perspective, with the use of colours and different text how it convey and create a different mood.

Member one, is a a girl aged 16 who is a media student herself, she said she likes it, however the text that lists the songs it's too light.

Member two, is again a female, aged 19 said she loved the effect that i have put on the photographs and she agreed with the first member that said about the colour of the font.

Member three, is male, he is age 16 said not only does he likes the images but he also like the added effect of the quote by Shakespeare he said it gives it another element of emotion.

Member four is female age 17 she loves all aspects of the digipak however she agrees with the first two members about the colour of the font.

All in all this was a very successful draft one as they have given me both praise and helpful feedback that i can change and add to my digipak.

Digipak Draft One

This is my first draft of my Digipak, as you can see the sepia tones connotes the feel of love with the light pink shading gives the meaning of love. The addition of the quote gives the album a more loving feel to which the audience can relate to.

Mise-en-scene in my video

The mise-en-scene has been very basic in my music video for the costumes and make-up it was a simple navy dress and 1950's eyeliner make-up as I wanted her to be as natural as possible.
However the lighting in my music video was very technological as the use of tungten lights at an angle shows the differential between each scene, also the use of natural light shows the purity of the sunlight on the actors faces.
The audience attracts to the music video as they are able to make a mutual understanding with the story line that is put in place.
The representation of my artist is in a sad and in a negative way, as the song puts her in a emotional state, this shows the audience that no matter what artists are human and they do have problems just like everyday people have.
The genre is pop and it is shown in the ballad type form that the music is produced. The music video supports the stereotypical view of ballads that it is all about love and falling out of love.
The narrative of the story, is how women generally feel after a break-up or a problem of arguing and losing the love of your life, and whether you can move on from the pain or if you can begin to feel like your self again.

Third draft of my music video

This is my third draft, there is still some elements that i need to work out, however i want to show my target audience to see their feedback.

Representation in my music video.

The representation in my music video shows the category of love between Men and Females, how some women can find the ending of a relationship life changing and they don't know how to move on, where the stereotypical view is that men tend to have the view that they can move on with ease and they don't necessarily feel the pain like females do.
However in this music video, you see the love and emotion that both characters put in and up until the argument, the audience can relate to this it is like David Buckingham said "the media offer material for experimentation with alternative social identities, if only at the level of fantasy or aspiration." The audience that I have aimed for can understand the way the characters feel, especially the female members of the audience. Not only can females relate to this story line more than the males, but it is because many females from a younger age understand the feel of heartbreak and how that can make you into a bitter person.  

Feedback for third Draft of my music video

Production Entry 9

In this entry I will be discussing the thoughts and process to reach the beginning first scene, where the slow zoom to the eyes takes place. Not only did this take a lot of thought but it took a lot of technical work and effort. The slow zoom was due to the camera shot that I had previously taken whilst filming Jennie singing. The added decrease in speed was used by making the time stretch to 48.78% which is under half of the normal speed of the video.
Additionally the opening of the eyes proved to need a lot of hard work, as the eyes had to open on the crescendo of the music which made the overall first 10 seconds memorable and captivating.

Production Entry 8

Transitions have been my fighting battle, considering the mood that the changes of the scenes could mean for the overall production of the video. Also the idea of using different transitions could this add to the continuity of my video or take away from the entire project itself.
Furthermore, not only does the transitions add different movement and you can connote the emotion of the music video itself.

As you can see above, the different types of transitions show the flashback in the singers eyes which is the overall look that I wanted to achieve. Not only does it show the difference between now and then but it also shows the difference between each situation. 

Production Entry 7

During the process of sorting the lip syncing, I tried a number of ways that would work, time stretch is a useful way of editing if the original video is a little bit fast. In my case it was to fast, therefore time stretch has improved the overall feel to my music video.

Experiments and effects I have used over the course of the editing process

During the course of the year my editing techniques I can say have improved with a number of ways, below I will list what, why and how they have shown a good effect in my music video.

1. I learnt that the way to make transitions run smoothly is to add a 'fade in' and a 'fade out' this will shows the additional value to each scene that comes and goes.

2. The effects that are added to the to the different scenes shows the change in emotion and anger with the singer. Not only does the darker effect highlight the binary opposites but it also helps so the pain that she has gone through. However the light and with a hue of yellow shows the love and how things in a previous time felt like nothing could go wrong; except when it does.

3. At the beginning when the speed of the zoom in close-up shows the emotion in her eyes when she immediately opens them, not only goes with the crescendo of the synthesizers but also grabs the audiences attention because they don't know where it is going to go.  

Problems that have Occurred During this Project

Well, with every project you come up to points that give you an idea, and you seek to find whether those ideas will work in the project that you have chosen. Some haven't in my case; however some have exceeded expectations.

1. As I have expressed below about lighting and the difficulty about having an actress that wears glasses and the reflections in this prop, it showed myself that not only can you solve the solution but also make the scene 2 X better than you thought it would be.

2. Finding the right lighting was the best thing that happened to the production of the singing scene. This binary opposites of the lighting shows the emotions of happiness and anger, which was the look that I wanted to convey to the audience.

3. When the Bullying scene didn't work, ideas ran loose I thought the ideas of a bad family life, but then I looked back through the lyrics and listened to it a number of times the idea just hit me, LOVE nothing complicated just love how one minute it can be the happiest moment and thing in your life and then in a minute or an instant it can be gone, a fight, a bad message or just the feelings that never meant anything real. This is what the parallel story is all about.

4. The story of love carried on a hope, a hope that in the ending everything would be alright; although the meaning of the song is moving on and becoming independent woman, this shows the happiness that comes after a loss of a love one whether that is through death or the ending of a relationship.

Evaluation of second draft.

After receiving the feed back from my target audience, I found some ideas and thoughts riveting and some on the other hand were a matter of opinion.

One of the thoughts that I understood would make my music video better and achieve a better continuity is lip syncing. The lip syncing from 2 minutes on wards goes down hill and therefore it takes away the value of the music video.

Another member of my target audience said she was unsure of the transitions, which is a matter of opinion as a different member of my target audience has said that he likes the different uses of transitions.

The second member of my target audience pointed out to me that the when the male looks at the camera it gives off the feel to the overall music video ambiance, which detracts from the emotion of the video.  

Target audience Feedback

2nd Draft of Music video

This is my second draft to my music video as you can see there has been in the storyline, as my target audience believed it wasn't dramatic enough to have such a big effect on her life therefore; I decided to make it more about her love story then a story about bullying. Storyboard is below to go with the changes to my music video.

Production Entry 6

As the changes to my music video has been quite drastic I have had to speed up the process on editing and the effectiveness on how I can do it. Therefore I have made the effects show the different timing, so the dark Copper colour is the way she is now and the yellow more serene look shows the good old days where she was happy before it all ended. Also the overlay of the some of the scenes show the light and the dark coming together to show that no matter what the light will always affect her future life and what that entails.

Story board 4

This is the recent changes to my video that shows the emotion and realism of her being distraught later on in life.
The bullying scene did not look realistic with my target audience therefore, I have talked about it to my target audience and they believe this would be a better story line.






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Constructive feedback from Focus Group

• As some of my audience members may find the transitions from dark to yellow I am going to revisit this and see if a different effect is more practical. 
• Lip syncing towards the end shows a lack in timing therefore I need to revisit and change this side to the story line to make it look more professional.
• The whole body scene seems to detract the feel of the overall story line, 
• Add more angles of head shots to show different sides to her emotion, 
• Revisit the bullying scene as some of my target audience don't think that it is a serious enough subject to effect her life that much.
• Make the ending more powerful, to match the powerful words and singing.    

Target audience Evaluation

This shows the target audience understanding the concept of my video, but also giving helpful feedback that I will be able to use and also show the changes from draft one to the next draft. It has also made me understand the audience's perspective when it comes to music videos and ones that they are happy with and want to watch over and over again.
 

 Here is the video of the feedback.

First draft Questionnaire for Target Audience

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1st draft of my music video

This is my first draft that has been shown and talked about by my focus group to give me any pointers and helpful tips.

Production Entry 5

In this session after using transition after transition I wanted to see if i could do something that make my music video have that unique quality. The quality that showed the past and the present, one life going through mental and physical changes, as I have been using Adobe Elements for some time now I decided it was time to play around and see how i can improve my skills as an editor and director. By using 'Fade in' and 'Fade out' you can actually play two clips at the same time to show whether it is the same person you are trying to show the emotion from both areas in time.

Production Entry 4

In this session of editing I have sorted out the lip syncing in the first three minutes of the song, which I found a heavy task as the differential speeds in the song proved some what of a difficulty. In some cases I have had to slow down the speed of the video to match the words in the song.

 Also this angle shows the emotion through her body language which you weren't able to see in the other scenes. This gave the video more depth of meaning and helps the viewer understand the pain that she (the singer) has had to go through to get where she is today. 

Production Entry 3

In this editing session I made a number of decisions that what has made my video different and also has became more in depth in meaning, by changing the colours and understanding the emotions of the song it has become more effective with the genre and feel that I was going for.

As you can see the Sepia tone brings the feel of being in a dark in closed place where the singer (Jennie Martin) feels like she needs to break free and become the confident young lady that she is after a  hard childhood as a victim of bullying and violence. The glasses give the feel of being a little bit 'geeky' which is also represented further on when the younger version of the singer is reading in the hall way.

Production Entry 2

Today 04/12/2014 I started my main task of filming. Today I have learnt the important details, from lighting and camera positions to the emotion in the actresses face. In discussion with our media technician and the actress I explained the angle that I was looking for to show that it was a flashback to when the actress got bullied as a young girl. I also explained how I wanted the opening credits to look, with the slow zoom in along with the crescendo of the music. This was helped by the very precise lighting and camera position, to get the zoom perfectly inline with her face.

 As you can see from above, this was the positioning that the camera and tungsten light. Unfortunately as my actress was wearing glasses the tungsten light was reflecting in them, however this is not necessarily a set back but a chance to make the footage even better. As you can see below where the light reflects this therefore means that I cannot use this footage as the audience's eye will automatically be drawn to her glasses.

Even though you could argue that it is her natural reflection if you look closely you can actually see the light bulb and it throws every other aspect away. I am now in the process of looking for a solution to the problem at hand. However, my actress (Jennie) understood the level of emotion that I was looking for in this video, I had to explain my idea about the fact that she was playing an young adult who had been bullied as a child and that I would be making flashback scenes to when she was that little child.

As you can see again the tungsten light is reflecting in her glasses, although the emotion that you can see in her face and in her body language is outstanding and is just the type of thing that I am looking for in my video. Showing that even though we get older it does not change the pain that we have had as children.

This first day of filming has helped me see the light into film making and it has helped me see flaws in using some aspects of technology nowadays.  

Production Entry 1

On Monday 08/12/2014 I decided to do a lighting practice to see whether it was possible to use the tungsten lights and have my actress still wearing glasses, We found out that it is possible with using different angles of the tungsten lights.
This practice is not only going to help me when I am filming the real scene later on. Although I did not have my actress to practice on, I used my class mate who is of a similar height to my actress. However looking very closely at the lighting in the glasses and the eyes, I found that the light reflects in the eyes, although this is not bad positioning of the lighting itself, as if you were outside and the sun was at the highest point of the day then you would still be able to see the sun in their eyes. Below there are three examples of the use of lighting, 1. only one light used glasses on, 2. both lights used glasses on, 3. glasses off both lights used. This gives you the example of the different types of lighting glare and reflection.

1.

2.

3.

As you can see the light will always make a glare in the eyes, this is shown in a number of Digipak and Music videos by the stars. There is an example below of a digipak front cover that shows a light in the eyes.

This has helped me understand more about tungsten lights and how in some cases it is due to bad positioning and some cases it is due to natural occurrences. 

Analysis of a Digipak adverts

Lana Del Rey is a new artist who has come successful in the last couple of years her music has come on leap and bounds, personally I feel this is shown through this advertisement. The font is bold which shows the seriousness in her album; which is also shown through the title, 'Born to Die'.
Furthermore, the light blue theme is carried through with the blue font and the blue sky. Also the white font carries through with the top which makes the advert flow.
It is has the information is clearly put at the bottom which gives the audience the details to pre-order and pay for this album, which is obviously the goal for the artist and the producers.
Additionally the background image gives the album artwork a sense of familiarity with the audience, which will entice the audience more to buy the album.








Jessie J, Who You Are, the black, gold and white colour scheme gives the impression of Jessie J own personal look, with the signature bob and the black nails and lipstick shows the continuity through out the process of the album advertisement.
Like Lana Del Ray's Born to Die it also has the important factors of the record label and her own website where fans can receive information about the upcoming release.

 It mentions the number one international smash hit with B.O.B which will entice her fans and audience to buy the album as if they have listened to the song they will be more interested to see what other hit tracks she has on offer to listen to. Also including the fact that it is her Debut album will also interest her fans as it will be her first public album.

Second anaylsis of a Digipak

 

In this digipak as you can see it is a different genre than Rihanna, this genre shows the country theme through the pictures and the font, the close-up of the woman on the inside cover shows the emotion that would be shown through the music and the lyrics. Also the front cover of the CD case shows the singer/songwriter in a desert which links to the title of the CD as it is called 'Desert Rose' and as she is holding a bag it looks like she is running away from something or someone.

The font shows that the country side comes through from the font style, it is known as Mesquite Std this is a classic font for this genre.

Furthermore, the effects that the editor has put on the photographs adds a sunkissed look. Which is appropriate for the genre and title of the CD itself.

In conclusion the style of the CD case has appealed to me as you can show more clarity and emotion to what the genre is.