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

When beginning A2 media I hadn't half the knowledge I possess now on technology. Throughout the construction  research, planing and evaluation stages I have used lots of media technologies. Some of these technologies took a while for me to get the swing of things such as Photoshop,  during the panning stage of my digipak i wanted to create a rough draft on Photoshop and ended up giving up and drawing it because it wasn't letting me be fully creative because I didn't know how to work with it to benefit me. During the the planning stage of my music video I created this blog on www.blogger.com so I was able to make posts during all stages and keep to deadlines and not forget any creative thoughts I might have. During my research and planning stage of the music video I did posts such as genre research into conventions. I found out about my genre by using mainly www.youtube.com because i was able to watch music videos by artists of my genre and see conventions in them. I then used prezi.com to create a slideshow of print-screened conventions so I could keep all my research together. I found an application on the college computer called 'snipping tool' which made my life much easier when print screening stuff because it allowed me to select the area I wanted. 
Youtube was a very important website during the whole process of creating our video because we used it to find the artist and track we wanted to use. We also managed to find the manager of Tanya Lacey's email address on her youtube profile which made things much easier when emailing them. We used Hotmail to email directly to James, Tanya Lacey's manager. 

Fortunately he replied very quickly to our email. In the email he gave us permission to use one of her tracks however we needed to let him know which one we wanted to use. After the reply off James we then used Youtube to search for the one song of Tanya's we wanted to use. It didn't take us very long to pick it because after typing in her name it gave us all of her official songs. We chose 'Born To Fly' for lots of reasons however we liked the fact it didn't have a very interesting music video so we wouldn't be able to copy any and we wanted it to be entirely from our creativity.

Without web 2.0 we would have found it very difficult to find our artist and the track because although she is a mainstream artist she is still very unheard of although we think she is great. YouTube gave us a direct link to her official website which also had images, videos, contact and her blog. After contacting the manager and choosing a track with permission we were given the task to create a pitch for our class which we used slideshare.com which is like powerpoint and allowed us to create a slideshow. We included some information about our artists which we found out using Wikipedia.com, the track we were using and also some initial ideas we had thought of after listening to the song.
After pitching our idea I wanted to start looking for a model asap because I felt the idea for the video completely depended on the look of the model. A redundant feature i had found during my research on YouTube was that most female rnb/pop artists wear minimal clothing and have toned bodies so i wanted my model to fit this stereotype. I felt it would be easier if i used one of my friends because when it came to filming the would be much more comfortable infront of the camera around people she knows. I came to the decision that my friend Thea would be good for the role so I used Facebook to show my partner Syra our potential model.

After showing Syra, Thea's profile photo's she agreed that Thea would fit the image we needed her to. Thea was happy to model for all our products, digipak and music video which was a relief. After finding our model  I booked out a DSLR camera from college so I could take the photo's for my digipak which i had planned and researched in my blog. The specific camera i used allowed me to set it into portrait setting which would ensure the shot i wanted wouldn't effect the quality if i zoomed in on Photoshop. I also turned flash off because i had the lighting in the studio. My images were all taken in the studio so it didn't require me to change much on the camera. After my photo shoot was complete i used Photoshop to edit which took a while to get used to but i learnt lots by just playing about. I started by changing the images from colour to black and white which was very simple to do, i also enhanced the brightness on them. When adding text i used dafont.com to find the one i wanted, i then needed to upload the font using an application on the computer called 'Font Installer'. After doing this i was able to write all i wanted in the font of my choice. I changed the colour to a pink to create a contrast between the black and white images. I used the clone tool to make my logo's fit the background colour. I also needed to edit Thea's arm out of the inside left image because she didn't have any arm muscle so i had her pushing her skin to make it look like she did. This was fun to edit because i think the finished result looked successful.

 We used facebook.com to create a focus group to get feedback from our audience. This meant we were able to upload anything we wanted feedback on such as our initial ideas. We were able to add people from Syra's and my facebooks so we got as much feedback possible. I think this helped because we were able to get creative criticism and improve upon it. I uploaded the finished digipak asking for feedback which i got from some members through comments. The group was able to let me know how many people had seen my uploads and would notify me through an app on my smartphone so i would know instantly when i got feedback.

I used my iPhone a lot of the time when contacting my target market for ideas, i posted our final music video on twitter so people could share it throughout the social network if they liked it. It also helped when contacting my model to organise shoots. I also used my iPhone to take pictures of my drawn up rough draft of our story board and also my digipak design which i then emailed directly from my phone to Syra's college email so we would have a copy on the computer.
After drawing up our story board we created an animatic using our ideas but drawing new images, we took pictures of our drawings on colleges DSLR camera and on the camera is a setting which allows you to connect images together and created a motion video of them. After doing this on the camera we uploaded it to Youtube and put it on Facebook for feedback also just for people to see how we were progressing.

After finalising our ideas we created a shotlist on Microsoft Word because then we could choose exactly how many rows and columns we wanted. This was a very quick process because i am very experienced in Word. Finally finishing the planning and researching stages we were ready to start filming. We used a camera borrowed from college which was a panasonic HDC SD500. With this we rented 2 tripods, a dolly and a normal one. And also a light reflector to ensure the lighting was good. We used the camera in lots of locations such as the woods, gym and studio. The only tool we used on the camera was the zoom which we used when focusing on areas of the model and locations. After filming we came to the best part of technology, Adobe Premier Pro. This software was essential during this project because it was what we used to make our music video how we wanted it to be. Firstly we used a Youtube converter to create an MP3 of the track which i then uploaded to Premier Pro so we could start working on the editing. Our main editing tools we used were making the shot black and white, speed +/-, croping, rotating and opacity. We also used some effects to make some of the shots fit together better such as cross fade and cross dissolve, we kept this to a minimum because we wanted our edits to be seamless without using too many effects.
Some main effects in our video were the flashing jump-cuts  i got the idea for this off Youtube from Beyonce's video. Also we used a stop-motion effect and a 2 shot blend during the first 4-7 seconds.

We uploaded out finished video after exporting onto YouTube because we feel it will reach our audience on a website like that rather than Facebook etc. Also it means people are able to show their friends and share it if they enjoy it.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I made a Facebook group so I could ask my target audience for feedback on all of my texts including the music video. This made it easier for me to talk to them all together. I posted my idea for the digipak and animatic of the music video to get some initial ideas on what people liked and disliked. This would then allow me time to rethink my ideas if the target audience didn't like them. After doing my research and planning i decided to create a rough draft of what i wanted my digipak to look like, this was a vague idea until i got the feedback from my target audience. I drew my rough draft so i could do it exactly how i wanted with the images however it was hard to do the font as im not the best at drawing. I let my audience know to ignore the font. I was given verbal feedback, people said they liked the concept of the boxing and the use of black and white however bright font which i had explained i was going to do. Once i had this feedback i decided to create my final piece based exactly on the draft. It turned out well i felt so i uploaded it to the group for my audience to comment on.
I got feedback from someone from my audience, they highlighted the fact they liked the concept of the boxing and the use of black and white images with coloured font however they felt the font wasn't bright enough which was something i had been weary about because i didn't want it to outshine the images however i feel now that it could have done with being a brighter pink especially the artists name. When looking for a font i wanted it to look almost like an autograph for the artists name which is redundant for this genre to do this because during my research i saw that artists did this including Jessie J. I used DaFont.com to look for the font. I felt this would also form a relationship between the artist and the audience because its like they have her autograph. I think this font made it look very girly and playful which is an element which follows through to the music video also. I used the same font for the advert, i wanted to use the same image however wasn't allowed because after researching i saw that almost every artist of this genre used their album artwork for their tour/album advert. I needed to keep it very similar because then the audience would be able to see a clear connection which the two texts. The main thing people didnt like was how the Tanya Lacey writing wasnt bright enough to go with the images. They liked the use of the black and white. Jo commented on the use of Amazon, HMV and iTunes logos to let the audience know where to purchase from. She said she liked this and that it is useful, also she liked the use of the magazine reviews added to the advert. I did this so that the audience could see that reliable magazines had rated it highly.

The thing i would change if i could would be the colour of the font because that was what my audience didn't like about it.



After finishing the digipak i began thinking of ideas for the music video. We drew up a storyboard of a rough draft of our ideas and created an annimatics which is a collection of images fitting together to make a draft video. We uploaded this to YouTube so we were able to then upload it to the group for feedback on what people thought worked well and what didn't. Some good points we received were that they liked the cake idea of having a stop motion effect which we did go onto use in our video. The animatic was a very vague idea of what we wanted to do due to the limited amount of time we had which was commented on for the rushed images. They liked the red lipstick which connotes the sexualisation of the artist which we then featured the male gaze.

We did a class activity where we could all give feedback on each others music videos. We used a camera to film it so we didn't miss any feedback given. This was beneficial because our class mates fitted our target audience perfectly. Some of the questions asked were theses:
Did you like it?
What did you like about it?
What did you think of the synaethasia?
Did you notice the visual motif?
Do you think it represented our genre well?
Which conventions did we use?
Who do you think our target audience would be?
What uses could you see the audience making of it?
Do you think it was entropic or redundant?
Do you think the entropy was beneficial for our video?

The feedback we were given was brief however useful. The whole group liked the video however the main element they didnt understand was the ending however we wanted this to be random and entropic because that was the point in our video for it to not have a clear narrative and be particularly redundant. They enjoyed the humor in the video which we wanted them to, also the editing with the blurring effects and the flashes during her dancing parts. The flashes were something they really enjoyed and said they had been edited really well, these were the parts we had found during our research which we liked in Beyonce's video. Our audience didn't notice the visual motif which i don't think is a big problem however it was quite clear because we had lots of close ups of the red lipstick. They mentioned there was aspects of voyeurism which we wanted to include having the frame as a prop with Thea making faces in it, we were very happy they noticed this element in our video because the male gaze was a big part in our genre research so this was a convention we really wanted to incorporate into ours and our audience feedback proved we managed to do this noticeably. When asking the audience whether they felt we represented our genre well they answered yes because they felt we had lots of conventions such as the fast editing, male gaze, lots of visual effects and the use of black and white. We then asked what they thought our target audience would be just to see their opinion which the confirmed what we had wanted which was young teens, however they mentioned only girls, we aimed our target audience at girls and boys since we had the male gaze. We also asked what they thought the audience would get from the video (what uses) Abbie felt the audience would watch the video and want to be like the artist with her behavior and fashion. Charlie felt they could see it as a representation of the target audience.When we asked if they thought it was entropic or redundant on person said the ending of her running off was entropic because it didn't fit into the rest of the video however Abbie said that it was and it wasn't because it is quite typical of this genre to have entropic elements of their videos. There was mixed opinions when asked if it was beneficial for our video because i don't think they understood we wanted the video to be random and somewhat confusing because else the audience would get bored and think its the same as every other music video of that genre.
Some other feedback we got on our facebook group for the final music video was very useful.

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

My idea was to produce a promotion pack which would all fit well together giving a clear brand image fitting with my target audience which is ranging from 13 - 25 boys and girls. My style was Rnb/Pop, this was not an easy style to market because Rnb is quite random in its redundant forms from music video to digipak however with pop it is all very similar to one another. When researching I decided I wanted mine to be both entropic and redundant to the marketing of this style. My brand identity was based around the artist because she is the main focus in the marketing package. It is important to have a brand identity because then you will form a relationship with the audience as they will begin to see similarities in all of the marketing package feeling like they are getting to know the real artist. It becomes more distinct to the audience. I tried to keep a theme going throughout my projects. I wanted to ensure they all had a few similar features however not exactly the same. I felt I wanted to represent women to be strong and independent which I feel I successfully did. For my digipak I used a boxing theme because I feel it connotes exactly how I wanted to represent the artist. I feel most artists in this genre are alpha-female and independent so I wanted the same for my artist. However I included male gaze in all because I feel although the artists are alpha-females they are still not as strong as men and still have the element of being there to look at. I did this by having images of the models midriff to sexual her for men. I used black and white images which I also incorporated into my music video. I used this because I wanted to make the writing bolder than my image, I also wanted the model to look attractive without the use of bright colours or any distractions. In my music video I used black and white during the funny shots because I felt it made the video more light-hearted and I wanted to continue this theme throughout. We used harsh colour contrasts to ensure it stayed redundant to the genre, e.g. black and white backgrounds. This was an effect we liked from Azealia Banks -212 music video. The sporting element of the products is a reoccurring one because the original setting for the music video was a boxing ring however we were unable to get hold of one which would let us use theirs so we had to go with a back up setting. After this news I had to rework my digipak and advert to ensure the three products would be similar to each. I did this by using the same costumes. I didn't want to use the beanie because I don't feel it would give a redundant feel to most rnb/pop music videos as the girls normally wear minimal clothing. The cinematography fits well throughout because i used very similar shots all being mid-close ups. These shots shows intertextuality which is the relationship between texts, i feel doing this meant my texts would fit better together having similarities. Our video carried through exactly how i wanted to connote the artists personality, fun, outgoing, determined, strong and independent  in my digipak i showed this through the use of boxing because with boxing comes the stigma behind it being the women who box are alpha-females, strong and independent. In the music video there were lots of scenes which connoted this persona such as when the artist was outside the shop and put her hood up and began dancing with no care in the world. Also the action shots of her working out as if she is training for a fight, i included this so the audience could think about the similarities of the products. Although i wanted to connote those elements about her i also included lots of male gaze and lots of humorous shots to make it not only appeal to men but also teenage girls to widen my audience. Another reason for why i chose to use the boxing theme was because the song is called 'Born To Fly' which reminded me of Muhammed Ali's catchphrase 'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee' i thought this would be a really good idea for the music video too however i was unable to get hold of a boxing ring to do this but to make the texts fit together i included some fitness shots and my digipak was very boxing based. 

In what ways does your media product use the forms and conventions of real media products?

Syra and my music video is under the pop/contemporary rnb genre. Before planning how i wanted my video to be i watched lots of videos from artists in the same genre such as Nicki Minaj, Beyonce, Azealia Banks and Rihanna to help me understand themes and redundant forms which show the type of genre. I really wanted my video to have a comedy theme about it to make it less serious and give the audience an idea of the artists personality. I tried to do this by using choreographed dances. I used jump cuts and synaesthesia alot because i wanted the editing to run smoothly which it did in most music videos of my genre. We feel it is redundant to rnb videos however entropic to pop because it has no storyline. When researching and planning we looked at similar pop/rnb artists such as Beyonce, Rihanna, Rita Ora and Jessie J. It was clear there were redundant features in all the videos however some had a storyline and others just had performance. We wanted our video to be fun and carefree like Rita Ora - Party and Jessie J - Lazerlight. The use of Laura Mulvey's theory, the male gaze was a big element in our video, we had lots of shots of our models midriff, bum and lips to sexualise her because after researching we saw that most videos in this genre have the artist in minimal clothing with shots of their sexual body parts.







There are lots of conventions of a music video of this genre such as a theory called the male gaze by Laura Mulvey, this is the idea that women are presented in media texts for men to look at. We incorporated this largely into our video because after researching our genre it was clear that it was a main feature in rnb/pop music videos. We did this twice, we shot it as a slow movement up her body and edited it so it would move with the music. Doing this it allowed the male gaze but still Synaesthesia is also a common trait in our genre. We did lots of this with our editing so the shots would flow better together. I think we managed to make this fit well into our video and it made it work with our genre. Most rnb music videos feature it and we liked the effect in Beyonce's Video Phone music video where there are flashes of red fitting the beat of the song. Another feature we included in our music video because of the research we had discovered of the genre is bright colours. We didnt have a large amount of this however we felt it gave a informal feel to the video similar to Rihanna's Rude Boy video which is one we really liked and wanted to have similar elements. We did this by setting and costume by having Thea wearing a bright orange beanie stood infront of an orange door which gave an urban feel to the shot. We didnt have the camera angle straight because we felt we didnt want it to be produced like a studio setting, we wanted an informal/urban edge. We felt this is entropic to the genre however we didnt intend our video to be entirely redundant.

My digipak i feel is very redundant to my genre because it connotes women to be independent and strong which rnb/pop female artists are such as Rihanna and Beyonce. I used black and white as a continuous theme which also was included into the music video during the comedy shots. The shots are all mid close ups like most in the music video because after researching i found that most digipaks have a clear similarity to their videos whether its a party scene or just a certain costume. My digipak clearly shows female dominance with the boxing gloves and the poses, I based this on Keri Hilson's Energy Video. I liked this video because it was the same as my genre and I feel the track I was using needed to show how dominant women are becoming in society so using redundant forms to my genre I was able to do that. I feel that boxing gloves connote determination and success which I feel the song was written about so I wanted my star persona to portray this which I carried through to the music video as well by having her training in a gym and punching. I feel my digipak was more redundant to the genre than my music video because I tried to keep the forms very similar using mid close ups to show the star persona. However with the music video I had minimal redundant forms but they were obvious when I did. Something which we focused on was the quirkiness of Azealia Bank's 212 video because we liked the way it was very random in its shots and choreography. To link our video to hers we had the shots which were similar in black and white because the whole of her video is. Her music video is very playful and informal but gives a clear star persona for the audience to see. We felt it was important to have repeat conventions to let the audience relate to other similar videos. We had conventions we had researched on such as unchoreographed dances and visual motifs such as male gaze using lipstick and revealing clothing. I also had Thea pulling similar faces as that of Azealia's to refer to that video. I didn't want the video to be a complete copy of the conventions because the audience wouldn't be as engaged so I had entropic conventions such as the lack of narrative throughout the video, this kept it very unpredictable unlike most pop/rnb videos which feature love stories. My video was basically about the artists day to day life. My main redundant convention was having performance because every music video features this no matter what genre because it is a demand of the record labels. 

                                                                           I had some very entropic shots such as the stop 

motion effect. I liked this because it meant we could remind the audience of the song title so it would fit with the track and we could also edit it to fit the beat. I fitted this into the part when the lyrics sing 'When it comes to making cake, well you can be the icing, I'm still gonna be the cherry on top', this is the only bit of footage which fitted exactly to the lyrics because I wanted entropy. This is similar to videos such as Thrift Shop - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis where throughout the video they have the image fitting the lyrics.  

Finished Music Video

Finished Music Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnCxPbXkkr4

Filming etc.

We have organised the filming to commence on Tuesday the 29th of January. We will film Tues, Wed and Thurs. We should be able to finish all the shots within those days. We took out a camera from college on the weekend so we could get some practice with the technology and learn how to use things such as the tri-pod and setting the camera to different things e.g. focus. We had a problem with loacation because the boxing rings we contacted months ago said for us to ring closer to the time which we did and they then said that it wasn't feasible for them to have us film in there, we were then stuck for what to do so we decided a gym might be better because it means we can show her using lots of machinery which we think will look good once edited. Due to the location change our storyboard and animatics no longer fits with what we are doing because the gym we are going to use does not have a punch bag however the shots which include one we will just change it to the model working out on a machine and practising punching the air.
For the filming I am going to bring in the costumes which will include bright colours and gym clothing. We will also need boxing gloves so I am going to speak to Holly which is the person I borrowed gloves off for my digipak and advert to see if I can borrow them again, if we can't Lars has told us about a teacher in college who brings some in everyday. We are going to film the shot of Thea the model and the dog on Wednesday because we will have more time for errors.