Evaluation Question 4:

What have you learned about your audience feedback?

The audience reaction in the cinema was positive. There were plenty of cheers and people were clapping along to the music. Due to their reaction I think our video was well received to the audience and they enjoyed it. When it was finished people complimented us on our chose of locations and also applauded Zara and I on our performance efforts which they felt made the video more realistic and entertaining. This taught me that the performance which goes into the video is just as important as editing and effects, it allows the audience to enjoy the video on an entertainment level as well as technical. 

                 Class feedback after rough cut:

Our rough cut was shown to the class who then shared their opinions of the video at the time. They liked our "fast cuts" in terms of editing and thought it was "consistent" and everything worked out "really well". I was happy with this feedback I've learnt it's OK to take ricks, which we did to personalise our video and slightly stepping out of the conventional formatting of a music video pays off. One critique added that some of the night time shots were too dark, we took this on board and fixed the colouring on Final Cut Pro, This taught me that although we brought a light with us, It's always better to film when the sky is not fully pitch black. 

  Individual audience reaction to music video:

From Alesha's feedback I've learnt it's important to keep to the theme of the genre. 

Ancillary Products Feedback:

I've received positive feedback on my ancillary products which I'm happy with. I've learnt that keeping things simple helps the main product stand out more e.g. having a white background against your pictures. I'm glad that the use of font and brick wall background clearly put across an urban pop genre and my colours mesh together well. 

Through the process of filming I've learnt It's important to take loads of pictures and shoot extra whilst your filming as when it comes to making a Digipack and Advertisement you have plenty of options to choose from. It's also important to keep the target audience in mind whilst editing as they are the customers and as well as looking good the video is a product which has to sell to them.

Evaluation Question 3:

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

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of you main product and you ancillary texts?

Our main use of synergy were our sunglasses. We felt that these would be appropriate as there is a trend in pop culture of Pop and Rap acts wearing sunglasses and making it a key part of their act. Due to our budget this was the easiest way to incorporate synergy into our act as we were able to purchase the sunglasses at a low cost, we felt that if the two artists has different sunglasses it would help our audience identify who was who and pick which pair was their favourite. Sunglasses are also useful because there an array of designer sunglasses, with the duo's popularity would come endorsements and a popular sunglasses brand such as Ray Ban may want to invest in the artists as their fans will want to look like them and therefore go out of their way to invest into Ray Ban. 

We were mainly inspired by the artist Kanye West, his album Graduation featured a cartoon teddy bear as it's mascot and was the protagonist of most of the albums music videos and also featured on the album cover. Throughout the promotion of the release of the album the teddy bear would always wear a pear of shutter glasses which were never seen before (see image below)

(Form of synergy -Kanye West- "Stronger" Single Cover)

Rapper Kanye West would always wear these original glasses and they grey highly popular amungst celebrities and fans.

(West promoting sunglasses)

(Influential Celebrity Paris Hilton sporting the shades)

(Shades finding their way into mainstream pop culture and media)

 

                                                     

Finding a life of their own due to popularity the glasses originally designed by a Alain Mikili the glasses began to get sold around the world in different shapes and sizes becoming a fashion statement, making Kanye very popular and boosting album sales. 

                                                 

Another example of someone who's used sunglasses in their synergy is Lady Gaga for her album The Fame-

                                                   

                                         

Sunglasses were the first thing people associated with Lady Gaga when she first appeared on our screens in 2008, in her debut video for the hit single Just Dance we see her sport them throughout the video:

(Synergy -Screenshots from video)

(Synergy- Promotional posters)

How I used Synergy:

My Digipack & Advert

On the cover of my album I used an image where the duo are sporting the same outfits and sunglasses they wear in the music video. I used the same Image on my advertisement so that main image of the the duo that will people will recogonise will be the album cover and the audience will recogonise these linked products because they are the same images. I think our audience will respond to our synergy well as our core audience if girls ages between 16-25, sunglasses is a trend which is associated with them and girls with in this age bracket do follow celebrity/pop culture. Even if they didn't sunglasses is an accessories worn by people of all ages and both genders, so all audiences can sport the trend. Synergy is also apparent in the clothing as these clothes are also worn in the music video, they are not designer or overpriced so our audience can realistically achieve the same look if the wanted to. 

(Sunglasses worn throughout music video)

Keeping the images consistent throughout the video, digipack and advertisement makes the artists clothes and accessories familiar with the audience. This way they will keep seeing the same items and grow to like them as they are fans of the artist they will also start to become fans of their looks and everything associated with them such as their iconic sunglasses. 

Evaluation Question 1

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

Which Videos were you influenced by and why?

Andrew Gooodwin gathered that music videos do not follow the traditional structure of TV/film. Some of his ideas are illustrated in this Calvin Harris video for his song Feel So Close.  Therefore some of the features of our video are unconventional and we drew inspiration from this video.

We used similar camera edits to show the nature of the characters backgrounds e.g. focusing on key elements of the costume like the shoes of the characters, as seen in the gif you can see that the editing is focusing of the characters clothes and we felt it important to so something similar in our video as this helps show the backgrounds of the characters regional identity. In our music video we made sure that specific items of clothing were relatable to the characters surroundings, for example of the the characters, similar to the boy in this gif, is wearing Doc Martens and a denim jacket. Doc Martens are associated with punk/ urban/ city culture, which is the theme of our music and the video whilst the supporting character in our video was wearing a pladue shirt wrapped around her waste, making reference to the youthful urban 90's trend and Converse trainers which are also recognised with teenagers and casual informal apparel. 

               

We used text to overlay the motion of the music video similar to that of this Calvin Harris video. By doing so we broke the conventions of a normal music video as this a replicating the use of title cares which is common in TV/Film but not music videos. We felt that because this is used in many Rap/Hip-Hop genre music videos that in this case it worked and made our video interesting.

(Examples of title card used in TV Series the O.C. and Film American Hustle)

(Example of title cards used in Music Videos- Beyonce- Drunk In Love and Justin Timberlake- TKO)

(Use of title card in our video)

We were also influenced by the use of mis en scene and interaction withe the camera in the rapper Kanye West's video for his song All Of The Lights. We thought the use of sunglasses in the video added a sense of curiosity to the protagonist so we gave both our artists in our group XO a pair of personalised sunglasses, also keeping them cool and fresh as sunglasses have been associated with celebrities in pop culture more specifically rappers so in that's sense our artist would be relateable with this trend.

Also the still camera shots of the estates captures the rural life of the characters in the video so we also showed still shots of Brick Lane where we filmed some of the video as there was a lot of graffiti art, as well as embankment as London is the hometown of our group and in this area we were able to show iconic landmarks such as the London Eye and London Bridge to make it obvious to a global as well as local audience where our group come from and what city they are representing.

The use of base tracks in this video are very effective and add emphasis to the fast pace of the video, this was effective and good to use in our video as it was also quite fast paced and matched the energy of the song. 

(Screenshots of location stills)

 (This was also evident in the Feel so Close Video which used a form of synergy incorporating the title of the song with the graffiti art in the video also keeping intact with theme of youth as the characters are teenagers in this part of the video)

(Example of rapper Kanye West's interaction with the camera linking to Andrew Goodwin's theory of the Star Image-A lot of the time the artist will be very interactive with the camera looking straight down the lens this helps the audience identify with the artist. We felt it important for both the rapper and the singer in our group to do this as its more entertaining for the viewer and adds personality to the artists. )

Did you decide to challenge the conventions of the genre for some reason?

We were also influenced by the use of effects in the video. Throughout the video there is a use of a flicker effect, we incorporated this effect into out video as we felt it made it more interesting and gave the video more dimension diversity. This illustrates Carol Vernallis's theory of music videos having specific editing which differentiates from TV and Films conventional editing styles. Whilst we took inspiration from Kanye Wests video we also felt it important to look at the videos of the artist song we chose in out case it was singer Jessie J and we found the same effect used in her video for her debut song Do It Like A Dude. as seen in  the video bellow it is used several times but we specifically liked the parts which cut to her lips and decided to interpret it in our video.  

(Use of effect in Jessie J video)

     

How We Did It:

(Final edit in our video)

Digipacks&Advertisements which influenced images and style of final Digipack&Advert:

I looked at Rihanna's Digipack for her album Loud

The image and the album is carried out in all aspects of the Digipack. The inside is a stretched image of the artist laying in roses staying true to the red/flower like theme whilst the CD has an image of a rose incorporated into it.

I liked the idea of the Digipack outside and inside not straying to far from each other. My these was graffiti and street style. The front has a clear image of the artist like that of the Loud cover and a continued pattern of a brick wall on the front and back with graffiti style art illustrating the title and spine. My inside is slightly different but the repeating pattern of the album name resembles graffiti whilst the inside image features graffiti art in the background. I liked that Rihanna's CD had a rose inside of it so I incorporated and X into mine so that the CD would appear as an X and an O symbolising the name of the duo.

Like that of the 'Loud' advert mine has the album cover followed by reviews and where to buy the album.

Final Digipack & Advertisement

Here is my Final Digipack and Advertisement