Ideal Audience Type

Researching artists similar to ours to try and find the ideal audience type.

Rihanna: Most of Rihanna's fans are young girls probably in the age range 12-19. They are into her music which is current and in the charts but Rihanna is also a huge style icon all over the world. Because her music is always in the charts, she is frequntley on the television and news so she is very well known. Other people who might be big fans of Rihanna are a male audience of all ages, probably 14+. This is because of the way she puts herself across in music videos and pictures. She

Beyonce:

Digipak completed

Magazine advert completed

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it. Copyright can only work if the idea/work/product is orgional and has not previously existed.
Works which have been allowed copyright by law are protected for the creators life and for 50 years after their death.

 Copyright was invented/ origionated in britain after the arrival of the printing press and with wider public literacy at the beginning of fthe 18th century.

This is the copyright logo which can be placed on a product/ by a products name/ in a products information to inform people that that product is copyrighted.

Song List

We will be adding the songs onto the left hand side of this picture.

The songs we are using are:

Digipak Cover

Here are some of the fonts we tried out for the album text.

(
We decided not to use this one for our final image as we found the font too masculine and we didnt think the text across her stomach was the best place as we wanted her to be the main focus and by the text being placed on top of her, she is hidden along with her outfit. We felt that the factor of materialism for our artist would be lost if her clothes were unseen due to the text.

Here we wanted the text to be a similar colour to the chairs, though the text looks quite imature and unprofessional.

We liked this ones as the colour of the text matches the colour of our artists lipstick attracting attention to her lips builkding on her sex appeal and her star persona.

This is our final mage that we will be using on the front of our digipak. We chose this one because we think it looks the most perfessional and compared to other female artists album covers we thought it was the font that looked most conventional. We used a the colour white because it stands out but also doesnt destract you from the image of our artist. We positioned ot next to her head so that the artists name was apparent at first glance which helps the artist build an identity.

Albums with similar fonts/ colours:

Magazine advert idea

For our magazine advert we hope to create it as simplistic as possible. There will be a picture of our artist along side the main title. With this we will have a brief outline of what our artist is about and her music. In addition we will talk about her latest single 'Your Love' and say her inspirations and ideas beneath the track.
Underneath all that we will include critics and notes on what other magazines and people have said about the song, we also might include some 5 star rating system to make a clearer impact.

Final Evaluation

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

This photo uses conventions of proffessional music videos. I think this because we used a head shot to start off with at the beginning of the song. This is similar to real life videos as it is simple and has the artist singing along and is a strong clear shot. Goodwin can be applied here, as one of Goodwin’s points is showing that different music videos have their own conventions, as pop songs mainly have the artist singing into the camera which directly addresses them to encourage identification as it is only one person.

This shot shows the two characters in our music video. The lighting is portrayed as the morning sun and is effective as it only lights up parts of the face to have an impact. Another of Goodwin’s points is that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. This means that the mise en scene, shots, editing etc will match with the lyrics, like the beat of the song and instruments of the music video. The lyrics at this particular moment refer to the man having the key to her heart, and this shot shows the happiness of their relationship shown by the smiles and how close the shot and framing is.

This shot is used at the end of the chorus when the instrumental part is playing before the second verse. Applying Goodwin’s point to do with their being a relationship between music and visuals, we thought this shot was effective and uses the conventions of a professional music video as it lets the audience identify with the artist. This happens by being portrayed in a long shot which shows the female and includes the background to encourage identification with the setting. 

Another of goodwins points is that the record label will include need for close ups of the artists to emphasise the image of the star. The reason for the use of close ups is because the record label not only wants to advertise the song, they are also trying to advertise the artist as well so they become well known and popular and to match the image of the song which will intrigue the audience. In my music video I have cut in regular close up shots of the lead singer.

This shot is a close up of hands wrapped round the males arm and reinforces Goodwin’s point of lyrics and visuals together. We use various close ups of the couple during our music video to show the relationship throughout. We used bright stage lights so that it is clear to see and so the audience can somehow relate to it. During this shot the female is also running her hands along his arm in a stroking manner to portray affection.

This shot relates to Goodwin’s point of including close ups of the artist to empathise the image of the star. Here we used an extreme close up of the artists face to again encourage identification. This conveys conventions of a typical music video by adding on top of the shot a layer. We added this by filming a separate shot of a out of focus chandelier light and layering if on top of the artist singing to add more effect. It dims away when she sings to empathise the meaning of the words, which is when she is talking about loving the male interest in her life.

 

Another of Goodwin’s points is which we have referred to earlier on is about different music videos having their own conventions. This pop song is about love and by using a female pop star we hope we portray this well. Also by the use of this shot which shows male hands wrapped round her neck, this could symbolise him supporting her. This helps add to the song’s lyrics and the meaning

This shot relates to Goodwin’s point which says that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. This shot is shown right at the end of the piece and the candles are blown out. We decided to end on this as it is also at the beginning and we found from research and previous experience that music videos like to have something to  start and end on which are similar and have a meaning behind them. We chose candles as they represent a strong idea of life or love that is either alight, flickering or going out. Furthermore there is a lyric in the song which mentions ‘flames’ and so we thought that this would benefit us the most.

 We used this picture as our album cover. This has conventions of professional music videos, for example the image of our pop star placed in the center. Having our star in the middle of the picture drags attention to her, furthermore having the background slightly blurry enhances the light on her. We have kept the front simple by keeping the title short, and simple, and keeping it to a minimum of black and white. Our star is also dressed in a way which makes her fit in with the setting, but also have an edgy feel with the use of wearing all black. The shot can be feminine though and does not take away the idea of being a female pop star by having her hair draped down one side, showing off her figure  in her stance, having a low cut dress which could create materialism and wearing bright pink lipstick. All these add to the idea of portraying a feminine pop star.

Our magazine advert did not follow typical conventions as we did not have the album cover as the picture. We did this because we wanted our star to have her own identity and gain recognition. The picture of our star is brightly lit in the centre and then we have made it dimmed black round the edges. This is effective as then the focus is centered on her only. Throughout our research we found out that many female artists used simplistic writing on their advert. We decided to carry this through onto ours as it was effective and drew the audience in. We also followed conventions for magazine adverts as we carried out research and found out what other types of information to include on the advert. We added on information such as, the star ratings and the places you can purchase the album, for example amazon and hmv. 

Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

Feedback from the rough cut:
- The lip syncing was out
- The male actor was laughing and chewing gum in some scenes
- Good use of shot types
- The male and female actors need to be more convincing
- Fill in the blank or awkward gaps
- Some shots go on for too long 
- Good costume
- Have more of a variety of setting

Feedback from the final music video:
- Good range of costume
- Magazine advert and digipak has a good range of shot types
- Lyrics match the visuals well
- Improved lip syncing
- Music video, magazine and digipak fit the genre 
- Looks really professional, especially the lighting
- Some shots too long, just standing
- More lip syncing 
- Good shots showing materialism, legs
- Digipak and magazine has a good use of light and dark-contrast
- Consistent style
- Variety of shots-not just face but feet, hand, legs etc

 Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Final Cut

We used final cut throughout our time making our music video. Once we had filmed all the footage we then added it all onto final cut so we could begin the editing. This software is very useful as it has a timeline along the bottom with many rows where you can drag and place various shots. There is also a preview box where you can view the footage. What we found most useful is the markers that you can put on the tracks which enable you to cut exactly where you want it. The play head also allows you to create a very precise lining of a shot. There is a task bar along the side which allowed us to cut down shots and then fulfil certain colour corrections and change the screen size and add special effects. This has helped us shape our music video immensely and gather the best out of our footage.  

Photoshop

We used Photoshop to form our digipak cover. We created various images which we took on one of our groups own professional camera. We lit these shots to gather the best we could out of them. We then uploaded them on to the computer and had to decide which ones best suited the front cover, back cover etc.  Using Photoshop we then changed some of the shots to make them look more professional. For example on one photo we darkened out the background as it was significantly lighter than the others so it fitted in with the other photos. Also because it had beams showing in the background which we did not want the public to see on the photo. In another photo we made the background fairly blurry so that the main focus was on the pop star. This image was used as the front cover as we thought it had the best effect.

Blogger.com

We used this software throughout our time studying music videos. Every lesson we added information to our own blog which we were created. This enabled us to add information about our planning and progress and then finally our final product. This was beneficial as it showed how we had progressed and what we had achieved. All of us had to add individual posts and then we also wrote group posts which we sometimes did together in the lesson.

Q4 conclusion - Evaluation
by: AnnaT11

Album cover

During thursdays lesson Emily and I worked on the album cover. I had already edited the image on photoshop at home so we just needed to was come up with an album name, decide on fonts and the layout of the cover.
We came up with a list of names which include:

• Halo
• Mirrors
• Reflections
• Secrets
• Key to life
• Run away

Out of these we liked 'Reflections' the most. We thought it would relate to the video as we use a mirror in some clips and show her singing/ looking at her reflection. This links the album and the video together allowing the audience to connect to the two together and therefore allowing 'Alexa' to build up an identity.

 (Photos here) - to do at college

Homework for Wednesday 28th November

You need to have an attempt at two of the evaluation questions by next week. I apologise for not going through this in lesson today but any start you can make with this will benefit you. The FINAL DEADLINE FOR EVALUATION IS 14TH DECEMBER so the sooner you start the better. I would like to see something significant from you next week for FOR QUESTIONS 1 AND 4 ONLY. See text in red below for extra guidance with this homework.

Word Count should be approximately 400-500 words per question (excluding question 3 which is in video form)

G324 Evaluation Tasks.

Below are the 4 questions you need to answer for your coursework Evaluation. The task for Question 3 should be done in your group. The other tasks are individual. When you have completed the tasks post all 4 onto the same post and tag it with YOUR NAME.

 Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Task: Select 10 stills/ images from your Music Video and the 2 ancillary tasks (you cannot annotate ancillary tasks just yet obviously). Annotate each one of them in Photoshop or Powerpoint to indicate which conventions you have used at which point. Explain which conventions you followed/challenged and how/why? Use Goodwin's 6 points as a guide here.   

 Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Task: Create a Prezi which makes clear links between your 3 products.

 Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Task: Create a director’s commentary which includes clips from the music video and ancillary tasks, as well as vox-pop presentations of audience feedback.

 Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Task: Create a video presentation which discusses the technologies you used at each stage of the project. This video needs to be different from the Director’s commentary in terms of its presentation and content ie. Presented as a ‘How to use…’/ Teaching (in character?) style of video that could then be used as a future teaching aid. For homework for wednesday, you need to write the script for this and try to collect relevant screen grab images. Choose 3 technologies that you used and explain how you used them or you can write it as a tutorial eg. 'how to use blogger.com to evidence planning processes'

Final Music Video

Our final video

Digipak photos

For our digipak I have been editing few photos that we can inlude.
To do this Ive bee using Photoshop CS5.1

This is the first unedited photo I opened in photoshop and these are the step I took to make it look more professional:

• First I duplicated the layer
• Chose filter, blur, lens blur and set the radious to 60
• On the blurred layer I selected the eraser tool and set the opacity to 100% and rubbed out the face revealing the unblurred layer beneath. For the arms and edges of the face I set the opacity to 60%

• I then used the dodge tool to lighten the face and eyes
• I used the sponge tool to bring out the colour of the lips and the colour of the iris'

• I used the spot healing tool on her cheek and head just to hide a few inperfections - this is what editors do for popstars to make them fit the ideal and look desireable

This is the end result, Which I think would work well inside of the digipak with songs typed on the left hand side.

This is the second photo I edited  which our group thought would be good for an album cover.

• First again I duplicated layer and cropped off the edges
• I also agian selected filter, blur, lens blur and set the radious to 30
• I then erased the blur from her body
• I used the burn tool on an opacity of 20% to darken the background
• I then set the opacity to 30% and darkened her dress and shoes
• I used the sponge tool on her hair to stand out more
•  I then zoomed in on her toe nails and used the clone to make sure her red nail varnish covered her whole toe.

• Finally I changed the levels and contrast and brightness to highlight certain areas of the image and so that the image would become more striking. 

Some other images I have edited:

Last day of filming - Friday 9th November

We filmed some more shots of Bessie and Ross together by using the feedback we received from our media class. Bessie kindly let us use her house because she had ideal rooms there which would be good to use in our video eg. big rooms and a simple spare bedroom. We re-filmed nearly all of the sections with her and Ross because the feedback we received on those parts of the rough cut was weak. We improved the lighting   by using a gold reflector so the light looked as if it were daytime. It also made their skin look flawless and made the whole scene look a lot more positive.

I filmed Bessie using a big mirror on her landing, i liked the way the camera films her aswell as her reflection. We placed the light to the side of her face which lit the reflection well but not all of her face which looked dramatic. I got the idea from this music video:


[Watch from 0.22] The camera films Alice Gold looking as her reflection in a mirror and i thought it gave an interesting element and point of view.
This video also gave me an idea for layering shots when we come to edit. This music video layers blurred lights over shots of her lip syncing so i thought we could try and use a similar effect in our music video.

Other music videos of the same genre which use similar layering effects:




We also think the music video will be a lot more interesting and professional looking now that we have added lots more different settings to it.

Rough cut feedback

In our Media lesson today we received feedback from four groups who watched our video. Everyone was given a sheet and we had to rotate around the classroom to each groups computer which had their rough cut on them.
Feedback we received:

- Boy actor wasn't very convincing as chewing gum
- Some of the lip syncing was out
- The setting was quite dull
- There were long scenes where the female actor didn't do anything
Positive feedback:
- It followed music video conventions
- Choice of costume was good
- She portrayed a good star persona

Last lesson review

Today was the final deadline for our music video. During the lesson and most of our lunch break we managed to finish our video to point where we were all happy with it.
First of all we filled in all the gaps where clips either needed to be added of replaced. We then added clips in or broke clips down to make the video more interesting and flow better. After this we made sure everything was cut on the beat appropriately. To do this we set marks along the top of the video timeline in time with the beat, to make editing a lot easier. When we were happy with the order of the shots we changes the framing and colour corrected certain clips. We changed framing in a mirror shot to hide the cameras refection, we also changed the framing where there were objects in the edges of the frame we didnt want to be seen. We colour corrected a lot of the older clips because the lighting wasnt as good so some of the shots were too dark or too soft. In most shots we turned the 'blacks' up and 'softness' down.

Once we had finished our music video we asked a few girls our age (the age we want our artist to attract) to watch it and tell us if there were any parts they liked or which we should quickly change. The response was very good, they liked the setting and the transitions between shots. They couldnt think of any improvements, which is extremely positive!

Final editing lesson

In this lesson we had to finish off our editing for our music video. Each of us concentrated on helping make the work as best as we could. Throughout our time editing we have found it tricky to make all the different sections cut on the beat so we perfected this by making markers on the timeline and so it lined up exactly. We also made the lip syncing on time to ensure that our piece looked to a high professional standard. We filled in the gaps to make our piece flow all together, and then changed the framing's by zooming in on some of the shots to make them have more impact. Furthermore we colour corrected most of the shots making them look professional. For example on some of them we made the background look darker so only the main focus was on the actors and also so the audience were not able to recognize the setting. In addition in other shots, making the scene seem lighter to create a bright and happy atmosphere. By making sure that the different scenes flowed together well, we did this by adding in dissolves and fades between each one.

This is an example of us colour correcting a shot

When we had completed our music video, we invited some of our friends in to come and watch our piece to gather feedback and see what they thought of it. Overall we had very positive comments and were very pleased as they did not point out any bad parts!

Questionnaire

What gender are you?

male [ ]
female [ ]

How old are you?

5-10 [ ]
11-16 [ ]
17-21 [ ]
22-30 [ ]
31-40 [ ]
41+ [ ]

Do you like female pop stars?

yes [ ]      no [ ]

Do you like the genre of pop music?

yes [ ]      no [ ]

If not why?

...............................................................................................................................................

Who is your favorite female pop star?

............................................

Reason why

........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

What is appealing about a female pop star?

.............................................................................................................................................................

What do you think a female pop star should look like?

..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Plan for the next few lessons

 Tomorrows lesson is our last lesson to finish our music video. In that lesson we will be colour correcting all the clips filmed a month ago and a few of the newer ones, but these will be less of a priority because the lighting and colour is a lot better in them. This is because we knew what we needed to do to improve the older shots. The gold reflector means that we don’t need to colour correct any of the couple scenes, and the defuser in the shots of Bessie in the gold dress on her own mean we will need to do very little editing to the mise en scene. We will also dissolve some shots into others just to create a variety of transitions. In todays lesson we overlaid 2 clips, we may do this again towards the end of the video tomorrow (most likely the last shot of Bessie with the shot of the candles being blown out).

In Mondays lesson we will be focusing on the digipak, editing the images, adding text and putting them together. In Wednesdays lesson one of us will be finishing off the digipak and the other two will be starting the magazine advert, deciding what text to include on what image. Because we are not in college on Thursday we will have to finish our magazine advert on Monday. By this time we will have hopefully finished our digipak but if not we will be adding the final touches to it. We want to make these aspects of the final product just as good as our video because together they are worth 20 marks.

Final Stages

Tomorrow is our final deadline for the music video. We are currently fitting in a few last clips and making sure they are edited appropriately, e.g. cutting on the beat and intercutting certain clips. In the past two lesson we have added the new clips we filmed last Thursday to the first 2 and a half minutes of our video, introducing the 3 settings in the first 22 seconds (before the lyrics start). We have generally kept the order the same, though we have removed a few clips from what was shown in the rough cut and added new ones in their place. We have also added transitions to some clips, mostly fades and particularly within the first 30 seconds. We haven’t done as many fades after this time because there is more of a beat which requires sharp editing in order to fit with this. Within the first 90 seconds we have added a lot more clips of Ross and Bessie to create more of a narrative/ meaning to the video allowing the emotions of the song to be shown through the clips, this makes the artist easier to relate to and can allow the audience to build empathy for her.

We are currently working on the last minute and a half filling in all the gaps and correcting all the out of time lip syncing. By the end of the day we are hoping to have all the clips in order gaps filled so that in our final lesson tomorrow we can focus on colour correcting and perfecting transitions. We are all finding it quite stressful, as yesterday we went to ask a media teacher when the room with our work in was free, we were told it would be during our lunch but when we went to carry on editing there was a class in there. So we have had to try and fit the remainder of our work into a shorter period of time, today we are going back again at lunch because the room should be free today, we also stayed during break to finish the section we were on.

Half Term Homework

Advanced Portfolio:

1. What is your finalised star persona? Include a photograph of your star that best communicates their persona. Discuss what ideas/ideologies they communicate (materialism, rebellion, innocence, the cultural “ideal”, alternative to the “ideal” etc.). How do they communicate these ideas? How is their persona expressed visually? (costume, hair, makeup, bogy language, lighting, framing etc) How is it expressed through lyrics, genre?


Here are some photos of the actress we used in our music video. We think they communicate with her star personna because they show attractive features eg. her face, long hair and body.
The ideologies which she communicates are materialistic because we want people to look at her and feel attracted to her physique.
We shall show this in our music video by dressing her in short dresses and skirts so that parts of her figure are shown off. We also did her make up in lots of different ways in differerent shots of our music video. Eg. simple and natural in some shots and dramatic and bold in others. This could show that she looks pretty in lots of different styles.
Body language will be simplisic but graceful to present feministic features
We also want to put across that she is innocent so that the audience will sympathize with her (maybe she has had a bad break up where the boyfriend treated her badly). Our star will also have a sense of strength so that the young females of the target audince will idolize her.
By doing this we have made a twitter account for our star and included references to a boyfriend figure in her music videos. Also the lyrics in her music video will relate to her past relationships.

2. Digi-pack and Advert

To make sure there is continuity between the advert, music video and digi-pack, we will do a photo shoot of Bessie in some of the same settings which we used to film her in in the music video. The setting will be in a room in her house. To make it look like the pictures aren't the same as the music video, we will dress her in a different outfit and make her make up different. 

Below is the album cover of Beyonce's album 'B`day' and the 2 pictures below that are screen grabs from her music video 'Deja Vu' from the alum. The colour scheme and outdoor theme are very similar to the video but her hair and make up are different which makes the cover look like an album and not a single. We can still recognize the style and identify that the star on the front of the cover is the same person as the star in the music video. We want to put across the same idea when we do our digi-pack.

3. Write down all of your individual or group ideas for the digi-pack cover and magazine advert. Ideas for costume, setting, lighting, colour, hair, makeup, Photoshop special effects etc. If you can do some mock ups of your own, or experiment with effects in photoshop.

Word count : 500 words minimum

ALSO Catch up with your blogging. Make sure Target audience work is complete and you have done at least 25 individual posts since the start of the project! It is not just the amount that counts though but the content!

Questionnaire

This is a questionnaire which i created to ask the target audience what they would expect from a music video of a female pop star.



Which are you?
Female []
Male []

What age range are you in?
Under 16 []
16 - 21 []
22 - 28 []
29 - 35 []
36 - 45 []
46 - 59 []
60 or over []

Name your 3 favourite female pop stars below
1.......................................
2.......................................
3.......................................

Pick the main reason (ONLY ONE) which makes them appeal to you THE MOST.

I enjoy their music []

I like their dress sense/style []

I find them physically attractive []

I admire how their personality come across in interviews/on the tele/ in videos/ things they have done in the news etc. []

Which 3 qualities should a female popstar have in order to attract or interest you in them?
1.......................................
2.......................................
3.......................................

By looking at pictures of this girl, would you say she typically fits the image of a female pop star?









Yes []     No []


Give a few reasons why
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Story board

This is our story board we created a week before we filmed our music video. It shows the order in which we planned to order clips we were yet to take within our final edited music video.

Shot list:

Shot 1- Our artist lying on the plain sofa
shot 2- Close up on the artist, leading to her miming the lyrics to the song
shot 3- A close up on her crying in between her singing
shot 4- A pan shot of her singing sitting on the sofa
shot 5- A pan shot of her singing lying on he sofa
shot 6- A close up shot of her face miming
shot 7- Darker lighting with candles around the artist singing a verse
shot 8- A high angle of the same setting
shot 9- Close up on her face in the darkly lit setting
shot 10- A shot of the artist and a male with their heads together
shot 11- A shot of the artist and male lying on the sofa with the artist miming
shot 12- A shot of the artist and male arguing
shot 13-