MC: Question 1 - Evaluation

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

·         Andrew Goodwin, Dancing in the Distraction Factory, 1992, found the conventions of music videos which can be applied to music videos now. Using Goodwin’s critical framework, the relationship between lyrics and visuals in conventional pop music videos is marginally illustrative. It usually involves performance of the artist which can sometimes be intercut with narrative, or the artist is shown in the narrative as well. We found this to be evident in our research when looking at other Ella Henderson music videos such as ‘Glitterball’. Within ‘Glitterball’, Ella is placed in front of a white screen and there are images of the narrative being projected onto her face as well as the narrative being intercut throughout. This is very conventional of this type of music video. In our music video, we tried to conform to these conventions because we included multiple shots of the artist performing to the camera which is essential in a pop music video as well as intercutting it with a narrative fuzz in which what is being shown relates to the lyrics. The friends are often shown when the lyrics ‘I’m here for you’ are being said so our music video is marginally illustrative.

              

·         Pop music videos also have a illustrative relationship between music and visuals. This means that when there is a beat in the song, there is a cut between two different parts of the music video, or that when the tempo of the music changes, so does the pace of the cuts. This is conventional of pop music videos, for example, it is shown in the music video of ‘I Need Your Love’ by Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding.  As the pace of this song increases and the beats become more strongly heard, the cuts become a lot faster in order to fit the music. This is something we constructed in our music video so we had a fast cutting rate where the cuts of our clips were in places where there is a beat in the music. We wanted a fast cutting rate to act as emotional colouring as it emphasises the happy nature of our music video.

· Goodwin also states that multiple close ups of the artist are used in order to 
establish their star image. This convention is used to show the artist throughout 
the music video to try and promote their star image to gain more sales. This is shown in One Direction’s ‘Live While We’re Young’ music video. They are constantly shown throughout. They are either singing or having fun. To keep it visually interesting, multiple close ups and meat shots of the artists are used and this helps establish their star image. In our music video, we wanted to establish the star image in order to conform to the conventions of a music video so we included lots of close ups of the artists as well as long shots and mid shots so there are a variety of shots shown. Therefore, our music video included voyeurism as the audience is often looking at the artist so our music video is quite conventional.

·         The form of our music video is apparent in the way our visuals respond to the music, tempo and emotional colouring. We have chosen to montage the clips of the friends and place them in black and white in order to show that the happiness of the friends has some emotion to it as they are there for each other. The cutting rate of the music video also is in time with the tempo of the music. We have intercutted a narrative fuzz in with a performance which is very conventional of the pop music genre.

·         The conventions of pop music print include close ups of the artist being the main feature. An example of this is on Ella Henderson’s digipak front pane of her album ‘Chapter One’. It shows a close up of her face with the album name and her name written next to her. We therefore tried to replicate this within our digipak front cover by using a close up of the face with the text next to her, however our photo shows her smiling as we wanted to keep with the happy theme.

·         The theme of friendship is constantly shown throughout the music video through the montage editing creating a narrative fuzz. The absence of conflict creates a consistently upbeat mood throughout which is what we aimed to achieve within our music video.

·         Semiotics are used in our music video due to there being no dialogue so we had to visually signify the meaning we wanted to portray. We used visual signifiers of close ups of the friends smiling and laughing to connote the fact that they are happy. We also showed them doing fun things like having a coffee, going on a ride, playing in an arcade and taking photos to connote that they are having fun together and emphasise that they are happy and that they are there for each other. These create a paradigmatic relationship connoting happiness within the video. This is similar to the One Direction music video as they are doing fun activities such as off road driving and playing in a paddling pool. They are also shown with smiling faces which helps to reinforce their happiness and it also relates to the lyrics of ‘live while we’re young’.  

                      

·       We also used semiotics in our print work. On our digipak front cover, an image of our artist smiling a natural smile is used to connote the fact she is happy. This therefore gives the whole album the theme of happiness. Throughout the rest of the digipak, iconic images on Brighton are used. This gives our digipak a seaside theme to it which is a place people often connote to being happy and relaxed. Therefore our digipak represents the theme of the album.
·       On our magazine advertisement, the artist is smiling again which signifies that she is happy so it relates to the whole promotional package. The background is of a light blue sky which we took at Brighton. The light blue colour has connotations of relaxation which fits in with the light hearted, happy theme we have created throughout. 

             

·         Our music video is polysemic due to the fact it could be interpreted in a variety of ways. For example,  it isn’t clear why the friends are happy together or why they need to be there for each other as the lyrics say. This therefore makes it open for interpretation on how people view the friendship narrative fuzz part of the music video. This could mean we have an ambient viewing of our music video so the preferred reading would be that the friends are out having fun and being there for each other whereas the oppositional  reading could be that males are alienated from the group and are underrepresented in it.

·         Our video is postmodern in its style due to the fact we have included narrative fuzz and that we used a blue screen to remove the background around our artist to include our own backgrounds. This takes away from the realism of our music video to make it more stylized. An example music video of where this has been done is in Marina and the Diamonds music video for ‘Oh no’. She is shown in front of multiple different coloured screens singing and the effect of it looks like it has been blue/green screened. This makes it conventional of the pop genre so we wanted to include this look into our music video.

·         The cult of youth and beauty is a common myth shown in pop music videos and print. This is culturally marked by the west as they place a high value on looking beautiful and youthful. Pop music videos often try to represent this, especially of female artists. We therefore tried to create our female artist as looking naturally beautiful. We tried to do this in our magazine advert and digipak as well by having the photos of our artist looking naturally beautiful by having a natural smile on her face as well as enhancing her from the background.

·        There is a discourse on gender, seen through the representation of the female artist and female friends. They are represented in a positive way due to the happy smiling faces. The absence of males reinforces the dominant ideology of equality in society as it empowers women and presents them positively. It emphasises the values of the west of women’s independence and freedom.

KT: Question 1 | Evaluation

Question 1- Forms and Conventions

Our music video ‘Here for You’ has elements of Goodwin’s theory (Dancing in the Distraction Factory, 1992) as the relationship between lyrics and visuals is largely illustrative as the video links up with the lyrics. The visuals reinforce the meaning of the lyrics, the term ‘here for you’ is repeated many times, and the connotations behind the two friends hanging out together displays that their friendship is strong and they are there for each other. There is pop genre characteristics in our video such as the use of bright coloured backgrounds, the fast paced cutting also reinforces these genre characteristics of pop music videos.  Our digpiak and advert also conforms to this due to the use of bright colours, however instead of bright backgrounds we used the desaturated images of Brighton to link to the other  intercut narrative in our music video so we could create a cohesive image of Brighton throughout all three products.

The form of the music video is apparent in the structure of the editing; we went for a fast paced montage style and cutting rate alongside intercutting a performance with a storyline narrative. We also used lip synching to create a generic mood for the video as this is very conventional for pop music videos. The black and white colouring effect of the footage of friendship also gives connotations of memories and the past, this is unconventional of pop music video’s as they are usually brightly coloured or desaturated footage. This gives connotations of a pop genre. This results in a happy atmosphere and has a positive residual which is also evident in our print work as the artist is pictured looking happy due to the colouring effect used on photoshop.

The campaign of our magazine advert and digipack conforms to the conventions of the pop genre as our front pane features a close up image of the artists face, immediately providing an emotional connection between the artist and audience. This is evident in Ella Henderson’s album cover, which features a close up photo of her face and the colour match scheme of the digipack suits the pop genre and provides a detailed aesthetic to match the style of music. The text used in our digipack and magazine print work is very minimalistic and simple, which is replicated in Ella Henderson’s digipack and magazine adverts which is where we drew inspiration from.

The conventions of the genre in terms of editing are to be fast paced cuts, cut on the beat of the music and close up’s of the artist. The performance of the artist is key in pop music video’s as the audience want to make a connection with the artist to know who they are listening to and purchasing from. The ideology of star image comes into play and has full effect when developing the relationship between consumer and music. The conventions of mainstream pop are challenged through the performance being intercut with a storyline narrative of friends, alongside the friendship part of the video being in black and white, while the performance in full, bright colours. The montage style editing is conventional of pop music video’s as it is fairly stereotypical for this genre of video to have multiple storylines and performance being intercut throughout. Star image is also present in our print products as the artist is photographed in a glamorous way to look like a celebrity so the audience would want to consume more of the artists products.

Our music video is polysemic, therefore there could be  multiple readings of the text. The audience readings could be preferred and negotiated, depending on how the audience consumes the video and meaning. Audience readings could be negotiated because they could associate the female performer with the friends and wonder why the performer is not part of the storyline and make connotations that they are no longer friends, therefore giving the video a negative message, rather than the preferred reading of a feminist, good vibes video.

The preferred audience reading for our music video is a happy vibes attitude, with friendship being the key theme throughout which the majority of the audience will understand it as. However, an oppositional reading may come from the male audience as feeling the video alienates males due to the all-female cast, and the strong, powerful female leads, therefore giving the video a negative message, rather than the preferred reading of a feminist, good vibes video. Our music video has an ambient viewing as it does not require focus from the audience in order to understand due to the montage style.

The narrative explores the narrative closure due to the montage based style we used, the storyline is simply a theme of their friendship and portrays simple actions that happen while the two friends are hanging out. As this is intercut with a strong, performance, the narrative closure was not necessary for our music video.

Binary oppositions are not evident in our music video due to the all-female cast and the similarity of attitudes and physical appearance of the characters. The characters are consequently on the same side of the binary, however femininity is explored in terms of voyeuristic viewing, this is untypical for generic pop videos as females are usually sexualised and viewed as fetishistic; this challenges the traditional stereotypes and conventions of generic pop music videos.   Power is shown through technical codes such as the performer due to their strong stage presence and attitude while singing. The female performer’s body language and gestures portrays a strong, independent image, meanwhile the two friends show signs of happiness and the atmosphere is more relaxed.

Semiotics are used in the video as meaning is create through the bright, gradient coloured backgrounds to signify a happy, bright, feeling which makes the audience captivated and happy. Meanwhile, the use of black and white for the footage of the friends connotes memories from the past and sets a calmer president. There is a paradigmatic relationship due to several factors such as the dance, the close up, smiling characters and the bright colours that all represent the same action code of happiness and friendship in the video.

Iconic signs such as the change of outfits and coloured backgrounds for the performer are iconic signifiers for the pop genre, and this is a common occurrence in many other pop videos, for example the character’s in the Glitterball music video.

The protagonist in our video’s performance illustrates the star image as youthfulness and beauty is evident and this creates a desirable image for the audience. The cult of youth and beauty results in the start image, meaning the audience want to consume more of the artist and their music.

The video has a postmodern style as the use of a blue screen uses state of the art technology to cut out the background and have artificial backgrounds and bright, gradient coloured backgrounds. It also has a narrative fuzz due to the montage style editing and lack of narrative closure.

There is discourse on the female gender as there are only female characters shown in the music video, meaning males are marginalised in this video due to the ‘feminist’ style of video and the message portrayed being a female based friendship.

The products reinforce the dominant ideology of female friendship, the act of going for a coffee being cliché and relatable to a young, female audience. The video has a emergent ideology.

Group: Audience Feedback

This is the final draft of our music video 'Here for You'. We are going to show our target audience this video and ask them for feedback such as:
"What was your favourite part?"
"Do you think the black and white effect on the friendship works?"
"Does the bluescreen effect suit the song?"
"What was your least favourite moment?"

KT: Editing The Music Video

While editing the music video we have come across multiple challenges and difficulties. We had to reshoot as we found the footage from Brighton was not of the best quality due to weather conditions. We refilmed the performance part in front of a blue screen and then editing it on after effects to make a gradient background with different colours to add to the aesthetic.

Group: Reflection on Shoot 4

On Tuesday 1st December, Mel went filming with our two cast members Hannah and Isi to get some more shots of the narrative fuzz sequence. The location's that we filmed in were in a coffee shop and outside by a Christmas tree. The equipment I took with me was a DSLR camera, along with a tripod.

My role during the shoot was to make sure our cast knew exactly what they were doing, what costume to wear and where to be at what time. I also filmed the whole sequence from multiple angles and locations.

Our storyboard was not useful during this shoot because we had originally planned for the whole narrative section of our music video to be in Brighton, however due to the bad weather, we didn't get all the footage we needed so we had to re-film again and get some more shots in town which were not planned on the storyboard.

The most problematic part of filming this part was not having one cast member, Sarah, and also Katie was ill so not able to make it. This means that our shots may look out of place due to the missing cast member. Also, the fact is gets dark very early was a problem for us as we would have prefer it to be day light when we filmed.

These are some of the shots we are most pleased with from the shoot:

                                    

MC: Editing The Music Video

For the music video we went on many shoots in order to get the performance part of our music video right, as well as having enough footage for the narrative fuzz friendship line of action. After filming against a black background and also using projections for the performance, we decided these did not look effective, especially as the projections landed across the artist's face in an unattractive way. This therefore meant we had to re-shoot and we chose to use a blue screen instead.

After filming, I had to create backgrounds to go behind our artist once the blue screen was removed. To do this I used Adobe Photoshop. I opened a new document and used the bucket tool to fill the background with a solid colour. I then used to the gradient tool to drag a gradient onto the solid colour background. This gave the background more depth and made it look more effective. I then saved these as JPGS, ready to be placed behind the clips of our artist.

In order to cut out our artist from the blue background, I used After Effects and used the keying option to remove the blue background and place in the coloured backgrounds. Once I had completed this and made sure the cut out of our artist was as precise as it could be, I placed the coloured backgrounds behind her, using a different colour for each clip. This was then exported and opened in Adobe Premier Elements 9.0.

We then intercut our performance clips in with our second line of action of the friends by using tools such as a scissor tool. In order to emphasise the difference between the two lines of action we dragged and dropped a black and white effect onto each of the narrative fuzz friendship clips. To make the colouring all look the same on each of the clips, we changed the brightness and contrast on them as well. We had to match up the lip syncing with the music and make sure everything flowed nicely.

MC: Editing The Magazine Advert

We have had to change our magazine advert photograph as we are no longer using the shots of Tiff in front of a black screen. Instead, we are using a photo of Tiff in front of a blue screen so we can edit out the background to make it what ever we would like. This is our original photo.

To start with, I added a vector mask layer to a duplicate of the image. Then using this, I used the colour black to erase the blue background from the picture. I used the colour white to enhance her hair and other areas that may have been erased by the black. Next I found a photograph that we took in Brighton on one of our shoots that I thought would look effective for the background. I placed this layer underneath the layer of Tiff. This is how it came out.

After I was happy with how the photos looked, I added in the text. I went on to www.dafont.com to find a font I thought would particularly work well. I chose 'Creative Type' because it's quite simple but includes a feminine touch. I used this for her name which I made the biggest piece of text, and I used it for the line of text selling the artist underneath.

I then included an 'Out Now' line in red so it stands out and catches the audience's attention. I added a slight shadow to the edges to make the outline less harsh. I also included how to find Ella Henderson on social media underneath, as well as an iTunes advertisement. This is the final product.

Group: Reflection on Shoot 3

On Wednesday 25th November  we did our final shoot, filming the main protagonist, Tiffany, lip singing. We filmed in the drama studio at school against a blue screen. We used the jib as a tripod to film multiple angles and distances. We also used the studio lights to brighten the shots and help with post production.
Katie: My role during the shoot was to set up the camera and film the shots, choosing which angles looked best.
Mel: My role was to organise the cast and her costume, hair and makeup. I was in charge of playing the music and making sure Tiffany knew how she needed to be performing.
Our storyboard was not useful during the shoot as this final shoot was not planned; as the footage in Brighton was slightly disappointing due to weather conditions, we decided to make the video more performance based. Our best shots are of Tiffany lip singing, close up, then her dancing as a long shot.

What was problematic about our shoot was that the blue screen we used had a line down the middle where the two boards had been put together. This means that when it comes to editing the blue screen out, it is likely that line will continue to be there due to it not being blue. However this is only a minor issue and we will be able to work around it.

We also took some still photos as the original picture we chose for the digipak does not match the other photos we are using from Brighton. We plan to edit these using after effect to make the background a light, sky blue.

Group: Concept Development

We have found some music videos that other schools have made that we have drawn inspiration from. The coloured backgrounds with the artist singing to the camera we found very effective and visually interesting; we are going to try and reciprocate this through our own video by filming in front of a blue screen with the artist lip singing and dancing.

Group: Feedback on Rough Cut

We screened the rough cut for our music video to our class and received some feeback:

Positive:

• Protagonists lip singing looked realistic and gave effect of verisimilitude
• Projections of Brighton over protagonists face gave an interesting visual effect
• Montage based editing was effective and fun to watch

Improvements:

• Less internal shots of the car/include external shots with movement to make more interesting
• Need more shots of the friends and close up's to establish bond with audience
• Make more performance based as the 'meat shots' are of protagonist singing
• Shots of friends in the car
• Movement of camera in performance shots using the rig to intercut and provide extra angles

Group: Reflection on Shoot 2

On Saturday 7th November, we went down to Brighton with 3 other cast members in order to shoot the narrative part of our music video. We used Katie's DSLR camera and her tripod, as well as using Mel's SJ4000 to take some POV shots.

Katie's role during the shoot was be in charge of her part of the equipment. She had the main role behind the camera when filming and taking photographs. She also managed to find people to be our cast for that particular day.
Mel's role was to direct the cast as to what they should be doing in the shot, as well as assisting with the filming and doing some shots herself. She also helped decide what locations in Brighton we should film at.

Our storyboard was quite useful during our shoot as it helped us to be able to work out when to go to what location so it all made sense. We did have to make some changes to the storyboard as we were not able to film the friends arriving together as we arrived in separate cars, and we also couldn't get a POV shot on one of the rides we wanted due to it being shut. However, we did stick to the basic storyline shown on our storyboard.

Our best shots include the POV shot on the ride, as well as the shots in the photo-booth.
The shots that proved problematic were the shots on the beach. This is because it was horrific windy and rainy weather which was not what we wanted. Therefore filming on the beach proved very difficult.

Our biggest challenge of the day was dealing with the weather. Ideally, we would have preferred it to be a brighter day, however the unpredictable British weather chose to rain constantly all day. This therefore dramatically changed the look of our shots, as well as making it extremely difficult to film. We had to cover the camera in a plastic bag so it didn't get wet and break. We are hopefully going to try and improve these shots by including a filter over the top of them so they look a bit happier.

Whilst in Brighton, we took photos for our digipak. We knew we wanted to include Brighton in the digipak so we tried to take as many photographs as we could so we could choose the best ones to use. Due to the bad weather, we were not able to get the shots we had originally planned so we had to do some quick thinking on the day of what photographs we could include.

Our next steps in terms of filming and photography is to re-film with our lead singer, Tiff, in front of a blue screen. This is because our Brighton footage did not come out the way we had hoped so we are going to have more performance than narrative in our music video now. This therefore means we have to make our shots of the lead singer more interesting which we will try to do in front of the blue screen. We also plan to take some more photographs of our lead singer for the digipak of her looking more happy as it's quite an upbeat song so we would like to show that on the digipak.

Group: Concept Development

Our original concept idea was to create a music video which was more based around a narrative story that was intercut with parts of performance. However, due to difficulties filming with our cast for the narrative section, we have had to change our idea slightly. Our music video is going to be more based around the performer now and she will be the main focus. We will still include the narrative sequence, however instead of having it in a sequential order we are going to make it into a narrative fuzz montage sequence to represent the theme of happiness. It will still show the friends doing fun activities together however it will no longer be based around the theme of a breakup and friends being there for you. It will just be about friends making each other happy which the underlying theme of promoting girl power.

We also decided our footage in front of a black background and using projections didn't work as well as we hoped so instead we are planning to use a blue screen and change it to different coloured backgrounds that are bright and colourful so be a visual signifier of the theme of happiness shown throughout.

Group: Photos Taken On Shoot

These are our most effective photos we have taken on our first shoot.

 

MC: Editing The Digipak 2

On Monday 9th November, I chose a different image to edit for our digipak front cover. I have taken inspiration from Ella Henderson's front cover for her album 'Chapter One'. The reason I have chosen this picture is because it emphasizes the natural beauty of our singer. Having her looking to the side gives her a feminine look whilst showing emotion that is shown in the song. Here is the image I have chosen to edit:

I then felt I wanted the edges of the image to feel less sharp so therefore I decided to put in a gradient adjustment layer. I made it into a radial style and took away the black so it was a soft white effect coming in round the edges.

I wanted to keep the photo quite simple and not make the post production effects very obvious. To start with I added a curve adjustment layer. On the RBG channel, I enhanced the whiter areas by moving a dot near to the top of the diagonal line slightly upwards. I then made the black areas darker by moving a dot near to the bottom of the diagonal line slightly downwards. This brighten up her face and made it sand out more.

  

Then I wanted to give the picture a warm effect. To do this I added another adjustment layer. I chose the photo filter option and on this I chose the Warm Filter (85) as it didn't make the picture look overly orange. I then altered the density of it to 35% so it wasn't too strong.



Next I used the crop tool to create the image into a square shape. This is so I was able to see what it will look like when its in a square shape like the front cover so I was able to fit the text in.

Then I used the text tool and chose PosterBodoni It BT as our text style as it gives a bold yet feminine effect to her name.

After I was happy with how the digipak looked I placed it onto a template of a six pane digipak and made it fit. This is how our digipak looks so far.

KT: Editing The Magazine Cover & Mock up

We took inspiration from Ella Henderson's previous album covers and magazine ads to create our own mock up one using images we took on our first shoot. We then added in social media logo's using png format's to create a clear background. We used the website dafont to get a number of different font's to use for the magazine cover, I then used the magic wand tool to edit out the background as we saved them as jpegs.