Evaluation

We was given a variety of different choices on what we wanted to produce. I chose my media product to be in the form of a music video. This is because I have always wanted to create a music video but with my own personal touch to it. I wanted my music video to have the basic structure, codes and conventions of a typical Indie genre music video, but I wanted my music video not to be like most mainstream music videos. As my Genre was alternative I had allot of freedom to do as I pleased.  At the beginning of the year I had a clear intention of what I wanted my music video to be like but I needed a song that would be able to conform to the narrative of my music video. I have always liked the artist Marina and the Diamonds as she conforms to what an alternative Indie artist is like, going on this I searched though various different songs of hers, many of which did not fit but there was one that I believed would work alongside my narrative. Obsessions was a song by Marina and the diamonds and in my viewing and personal reading of the song I believed that with my initial intention of a young women who has had one night stand and then gets emotionally distraught about what she has done. When I realised that this song could work well with my narrative I then tried to conform my narrative to the lyrics of the song. such as my artist waking up when the lyrics say "someday wake up" my artist will wake up. By doing research into music videos I allowed myself to quickly pick up on the codes and conventions that a normal music video follows I believed I would gain great knowledge. I analysed three texts and looked at the Sound, Editing, cinematography and Mise en scene. I choose them on the basis that they are of the same genre of my product, I eclectically borrowed different things from my research as I wanted to incorporate them into my product. Planning and research was key to giving me the knowledge I need to produce my music video. I had to do many things before I started filming my music video. I had to pick an artist who I believed was best suited to the role as being the actress in my film. I had then started to create my narrative and then started to do rough sketches of what I wanted to do and then I had the rough layout of my music video. I then re did my drawings and did them into a storyboard in which I then created into an animatic. After this I knew that everything would work properly and then was given the thumbs up on going out filming. After doing the safety checks and briefing my artist about the schedule we then started to film. After one full day of filming I then started to edit my music video and this is when I felt as though I could create the narrative and put it all together. I had 46 minutes worth of original footage and then reduced it to the 3 minutes which is my music video. Many of the 46 minutes were of practise and test shots but I believed I had got the best shots. I then edited my music video, I made various changes to the first edit, this was down to teacher comments. I then had my final product.

Looking at my own music video, I think I have been successful at creating a music video. It is not the best music video ever produced but it is not the worst. I have got most of the stylistics that a normal music video would have and I have focused on the four main components of a music video Sound, Cinematography, Mis en Scene and Editing. Sound was extremely important, I believe my media text sound challenges other more contemporary music videos as you do not see many Independent singers making music videos these days, it is usually the big stars which are part of conglomerate company's such as Universal music and Sony. My song is different and my music video also is not like the majority of music videos this is why I have classed it as an alternative form of music. The music works in partnership with all of the other components. Editing and the music had to go in partnership as I had to get the song to fit to the music video and get the video to the beat of the music, The music and the Mis en scene both worked well together because after analysing the lyrics of the song I was able to pick up on words which I would be able to play on. The sound and the cinematography worked well as it is an emotional song and emotional songs usually focus on close ups and long shots, I incorporated these into my music video as they are used in real media products. In the beginning I had always wanted the editing of my music video to challenge other media products as I did not want a fast paced music video, I wanted mine to develop on the older music videos were they take the time for the audience to get use to the music video and also have an emotional response from the music video and I believed that if I had fast editing and this went against everything that my Media product went against. I wanted my scenes to be slow and create meaning rather then be on for 3 seconds and have no impact on the audience at all. One scene in particularly that did this was on the bench scene, which lasted for several seconds but from audience feedback people said this was a very emotional scene as the camera zoomed in and lasted longer then normal conventional scenes.

Some of the scenes that I originally wanted to use could not be incorporated into my music video such as the scene were my artist is sat under a tree which is shown in my anamatic. I could not do this as I did not have enough time to include it into my music video. As the tree scene was a self reflective scene for the actress and also in the narrative I needed another way to create this so I choose to extend the bench scene o create a much more emotional statement. I believe I used the same transitions in my shots that a normal music video would use. I used two different kind of transitions and these were Jump cuts and Dissolves. These were both used for different things, Dissolves were mostly used at the beginning of the music video as they showed that time had passed from different scenes, they was also good for continuity. Jump cuts were used when a character was walking past the camera and also tracking shots such as when my artist is walking on the pier and has to walk past the artist, this is when I used it as I thought it would be more effective. In the editing I also took the vivid colours out of my music video by the use of melancholy, this was done by taking out all of the colours by using the editing suite and this gave it a dramatic and depressed look to it. This effect gave my video an airy and yellow hint to my complete video which many different professional singers use in their music videos. Cinematography was used throughout the music video and I looked in detail at what the cinematography would be like in my music video. I looked at various different music videos that were slow paced and not of a contemporary nature and looked at if the cinematography in their music videos would work and be successful in my video. I realised that if the song was an emotional song then they would focus on long shots and many close up shots of the artist. I believed that the use of close up shots would create an emotional response with the audience whilst the use of a Long shot would also have the same significance but make the audience thing that the artist is insignificant and minute in the problem which she faces. The long shots and Close up shots can be seen here.

By using these both shots I believe I think it is a sharp contrast in the fact the shots are extremely far away from each other in the sense of distance but in the sense of emotion there can be seen that there is clear similarities that the actress is not emotionally stable. I used the camera also to create meaning to the narrative. I wanted my artist to seem as though she is emotionally unstable at various points in the video. The shot above showing my artist on the pier is a great example of how I did this. I went against what all directors and film makers of music videos do and I was shaky whilst filming the scene, I wanted to reinforce the fact that my artist is unstable and not knowing what is going on in her life. I also wanted to use point of view shots which would let the audience see what my artist is seeing adding to the realism of the video to the audience. These can be seen in the driving scene and on the pier this can be seen in the these two images which are shown below.

Both of these images can be seen as being the point of view of which the artist is looking. The driving scene shows that my artist is going somewhere and this was one of the main things that I wanted to make clear when I was planning my music video. It also stuck with the original idea that I wanted to go down a country lane with lots of greenery. The point of view shot of the water was used to create depth to the scene and also let the audience thing whether or not my artist would jump or not. By making it a point of view shot it allows the audience to feel as though they are a part of the music video. I used various different camera movements in my music video as different camera movements symbolise and put across different message. I used Panning, High angled shots, tracking shots and many more shots. At the beginning of the music video I used a high angled shot and this was to show the vulnerability and the little power that my artist had during the bedroom scene. Mise en Scene was one of the biggest stylistics that I used when I was planning and producing the music video as it has so many different elements within this one stylistic. One of the elements was location, When I always knew that I wanted my music video to be around water but also incorporate travelling. Location is key to allowing the audience to know whats going on. I choose four different places for were I wanted my music video to take place in a House, Car, Humber river, and the pier. The best thing about these locations is that there are many different things happening in the shot such as the Humber bridge being in the shot were my artist is throwing stones into the river which  is seen below.

Location was very important to telling a narrative as it allows the audience to know were the music video is going. Like many different big music videos I have various big things in my music video such as The Humber Bridge, The deep and the old Hull Pier.

The lighting in the music video was mostly dull most of the time because of the weather on the day of the shoot. It was mystery and overcast giving it a very melodramatic colour to the environment, this was also helped by the editing I did to remove the colours and keep it very melancholy. The use of Space was also important in my music video. There was a clear contrast in the space is between the house and the outdoors. With the narrative being about my artist having a one night stand I wanted the house scene to look very close and no real room to move, but in contrast with the image were my artist is throwing stones there is lots of room, showing that my artist is free to do as she is pleased but cannot reach the other side unless change is made then she could go over the bridge. Costume and makeup was also very important, I wanted my artist to have a different dress sense to most artists, This is a screenshot of my artist in her dress exiting the house. She is wearing a small white dress which I believed brought out innocence and beauty, It is both not to long but not to short

showing my artist as being different and breaking moral codes because 60 years ago a girl would not be able to wear a skirt like this and especially not in the situation which my music video puts her in (having a one night stand). She has flat shoes on this is because I did not want my artist in high heels which are usually seen in music videos these days. I wanted her look to be as simple as possible. My artists hair and makeup was both natural as I wanted her to look as natural as possible. She also had to smudge her makeup as this would show that she has slept rough or not being up to what she should of being doing. The acting in the my performance was probably one of the biggest things that I wanted to be to a high standard in my music video. I picked my artist because she was very pretty and also because she is very talented at acting. My actress had to put across the emotions in which I wanted her to feel. I wanted my actress to also do a small bit of performance as most music videos incorporate performance into their music videos. My performance was the main focal point of my music video. I did not want an award winning performance but I wanted it to be as natural as possible so I told my artist just to feel free and dance, so what you see on the video is all natural but many people have said that the dance scene is there favourite part of the music video. I believe that I had incorporated most things that a normal music video has, but I believe I have used, developed and challenged the normal elements that a normal video has to show and offer.

After making the music video and making changes to it after audience feedback I then moved onto creating my two ancillary texts. I firstly wanted to work on the Internet homepage which I was asked to create, I looked at various artists homepages and took all of the main components that they had used in there Internet homepage and took what I believed would work successful in my Internet homepage. I wanted it to also incorporate my music video into it in two different forms. I wanted my Internet homepage to be easily accessible but also be extremely simple. On the right you can see the navigation tool that you can see on all Internet homepages. This is all about having interactivity with the fans.  The type of font can also be seen on the top of the Internet homepage because people like to have clarification that they are on the right website and if it reads "Faran and the Diamonds then they will know it is the homepage. I choose the font and the writing because is different and also modern. The background of my Internet homepage was done by taking a freeze shot of the original shot of the pier and a clip of some grainy marble and bringing them both together on photoshop to make this great background. It shows my main artist and has clear reference to my music video, this was mentioned allot in my audience feedback as people like what I had done to make this effect. This can be seen below.

This can be seen in the image below. I also wanted to include social networking sites onto my Internet homepage as these are always included on contemporary media products now. Social networking sites are now a very big form of advertising music videos and artists now because it is cheap and also so many people use them. With Facebook having nearly 900 million followers on the networking site you can not miss the chance to market yourself on social networking sits. This is why various social networking sites are incorporated into my Internet homepage. My music video is also on the Internet homepage as I believe it is the right place to put it and also most people would watch it when they are on it, It also promotes the song and allows the audience to watch. Above the video it says "Obsessions, download now" so it gives the viewer the chance to download the track after watching the music video.

The second ancillary text that I chose to do was the Magazine poster. As I have had previous knowledge in producing a music magazine cover for a band in the AS coursework project I believed I could bring allot of my old knowledge about creating a music magazine page advertising a song. I did some research into Music posters for singles and picked out things that I liked then started to create my poster. I wanted my magazine to be more colourful but have a very different appearance then most music magazine promotions. From audience feedback people have said it is very simple but it is very effective and has just what a magazine needs but not being to overpowering with information. I kept the same writing as the Internet homepage which is good for continuity and recognition from the audience and fans. this can be seen on the right. This is at the top of the magazine and allows  the audience to wonder what the "Obsessions" is about. Another thing that

Other magazines had that my magazine also had was the dates that the video was coming out on.

Also I have put on additional information about the website because people like to be able to have access onto the website after seeing the poster or video of a music video. It also gives it authenticity. One things that sometimes use is reviews from high up places so I made a small review in the middle with the very noticeable star rating next to it. I used Independent artists magazine because I believed it would play on the fact that it is different and not the same as all of the other music videos. The use of this is great for promoting my song as and the use of stars show that

this reviewer believes that the song is five stars alongside the video. Just like the Internet homepage I wanted to use an Image from my music video to be as the background for my music poster. I created the effect by dipping a piece of paper in tea and leaving it in the morning, then I scanned it into photoshop and then put the photo of my artist over it as a different layer giving it a very great artistic way. Many people in the audience feedback said they also liked the background of my Magazine poster. The Image I used was of the scene were Mel is looking in the mirror. I then faded out the corners and this gave it a really good effect. Overall I believe it looks professionally made and also with my audience feedback my Poster got good reviews and most people said that is looked professional. I believe the combination of my Ancillary texts with my main product work well and they all benefit each other. Similarities between all three of the products work in favour with each other as they use they use the same narrative and conventions. There can be seen to be a clear link with the colours that are used. I believe that the Internet and Posters are two of the most successful way at promoting a song these days and that is why I choose to use these and as a combination. One of the questions in the questionnaire was "How well do you believe the three products worked with each other" and 9/10 people said that they agreed that they all worked well together.

Audience feedback has been very important and I found it extremely helpful in knowing where my strenghs and weakness's have been. I have had various sorts of audience feedback over the progression of my main products. I have learnt allot from my audience feedback, I have learnt that without it my Music video and Ancillary texts would not be to the standard that they are today because without the audience feedback I would not of been able to make changes and spot things that were wrong. The best thing about audience feedback is that people have had different readings of my three products and have been able to give there own response to how they view the product and what they feel is good and bad about the products. Also by the randomness of the audience feedback people could give an honest opinion on what they believed the products was like and could give a personal response to how they read the products. Audience feedback has been vital to helping me progress my products up to a high standard. I used various different ways of gaining audience feedback such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Questionnaires and by conversations these have all been great ways of getting Audience feedback. I have learnt from my final bit of audience feedback that my product is not perfect or professionally done but it is well thought out and the main elements of other products have been incorporated and used in my product. I believe I have achieved so much this year in terms of producing three products which I wasn't that clear on at the beginning of the year.

I have used many different forms of media Technology over the past year. Some of which I used in the first year of Media. The Internet has been vital to gaining information about the products that I have been creating. I have used mostly Google and Wikipedia for images and information into my chosen genre. Polls were also helpful in gaining information about what people liked and what they did not like. I used a simple scanner to scan things in with such as my lyric sheets and my storyboard for my animatic. I used a Olympus SP600UZ to take my photos my lyrics and also of my artist. I had previous  knowledge on how to use the camera from the previous year so it was very easy to use and knew how to work the settings of the camera. I used "Go animate" to make small little clips which was a great way of telling information but not in word form. They are interesting and very good use. Youtube has been a great way of looking at other music videos which also helped me develop my knowledge of music video. I also used Youtube as a way of advertising my Music video and to find valuable audience feedback, Youtube is also global so the audience is very big, up to now I have had over 500 views on my Youtube video and with very positive responses. I used a normal steady camera which was owned by the college to do my filming on. I did not know how to work the camera at first but with help from my teacher I was able to learn the basics about how to use the camera, That night I did some research into the camera to learn about how to get the most out of the camera so by the time I started shooting I felt confident in holding the camera. With using the tripod I was easily able to move the camera steadily up and down and side to side which was great in scenes such as the kitchen, walking on the foreshore and leaving the house scene. Sometimes I did not use the steady cam this can be seen in the pier scene when my artist can be seen standing on the pier whilst the camera was zoomed out. The program that I used to edit my music video was Adobe premier pro CS3 which I used to edit my music video on which can be seen in this picture . By using this it

allowed me to work on my music video and edit my music video. I used this media technology to get my music video in sync and also make it look as though it had been professionally made. I did this by putting my music video into chronological order because the scenes were all over the place. After putting everything into place I then started to put effects onto my music video such as changing the colour so it is melancholy, this was then used throughout my video. The use of transitions were also used such as Jump cuts and dissolves. I also put my track onto the edit suite so I could put my song in time to the beat. I also used a writing application to put the "Faran and the Diamonds" at the end which was very simple but it just gave a personal touch to the end of the video. When I felt as though I believed the video was up to standard I then asked people if they believed it looked good after that I then transferred the file using Adobe Media exporter and saving the video as a WMF. I then uploaded my video onto Blogger, Facebook and then Youtube for audience feedback. I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to create my ancillary texts. I had previously used Photoshop in the first year to create my music magazine so had a basic understanding of what I needed to do to produce my Products. I used different tolls such as the fading tool which allowed me to fade my image on my Poster to give it the effect that I aimed for. Also It allowed me to fade two images into one to give it a mixed look such as the background to my Internet homepage in which I took two images and merged them into one giving it a very dramatic effect. I believe photoshop was a great help and allowed me to develop my Ancillary texts up a high standard and also give them a professional look to them. I used word to to get all of my information down and it is a very simple tool but allows to check though your work and work on mostly all computers. Probably one of the biggest Media technologies that I worked on was Blogger. Blogger allowed me to put my posts in chronological time and get audience feedback and present also. It also allows you to post videos, links, pictures, questionnaires and many more. It has allowed to show the Planning, production and evaluation of my three main products, which I believe to have been successful. Also it has developed my skills of using different forms of digital technology.

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