EVALUATION
ALESSIA TERESKO G324/A2
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
F
or my A2 coursework I had to produce three different media products which all related to each other. Prior to the creation and production of my products I researched thoroughly into real life examples in order to successfully understand what to include and how to appeal to my target audience. Researching helped me to discover the forms and conventions for each of my media product, enabling me to comprehend what I needed to make sure to include so that it could give me a successful outcome. However even though I followed the main forms and conventions for each of my final product, I wanted to vary and create something different and original which reflected my personality and the genre of the song which I chose for my music video. In doing it made me much more interested and excited to create and complete all of my products as I felt that they were something not only carefully planned and produced, however also very personal.
My three different coursework finals products were: a music magazine advert, a digipack and a music magazine.
To begin with the music magazine advert was the first product which I created. This had the intention of promoting the album of my singer and the song of the music video. This I believe was one of the easiest products to produce as I previously produced a film poster and also a music magazine, therefore I was very confident with using Adobe InDesign to create the music advert. I decided to research into real life music magazine adverts in order to understand which features to include and also to see if all music adverts had a similar pattern which they all followed. Looking at my music magazine advert I believe its successful as it follows all of the forms and conventions of music magazine adverts; this is due to including the name of the album, the name of the singer, a powerful and eye-catching image, ratings of real life music magazines and record labels, the main hit song which appears in the album and other additional information about how the album will be available and when. This product didn’t challenge or disrupt any forms and conventions as I decided to follow them and to create something simple, which reflected the genre of the music and of the singer. I noticed how real life music adverts all included an interesting image which I believe is one of the main features which attracts the audience if they are unaware of who the artist is. Therefore, during the shooting of my music video I decided to take some artist pictures for both the music magazine advert and for
the digipack. I chose the image of the music magazine advert to be the main image as I believe carries a lot of meaning; this is because firstly her looking outside the window and seeing her reflection , conveys that she’s looking at her future self and that she’s seeking to find her own fantasy (which refers to the name of the album), the fact that there are scratches on the window and rain drops signifies how she’s been hurt and that she’s been through a rough patch of her life , conveying that the songs in her album will reflect this characteristic; also the song of the music video ‘On my mind’ reflects how she’s clearly filled with many different thoughts which are clearly making her question her decisions. I’ve manipulated the image so that the bottom half looks darker in compare to the top and this signifies how the darkness that she’s carrying through her life has eventually come to an end thanks to her music which brings light and hope to a better self. The second media product which I designed was a digipack. Similarly, to the music magazine advert this was fairly simple to design thanks to having worked previously with InDesign, however I had no idea of what digipacks included, therefore I carried out a research to understand the forms and conventions of digipacks. I had to make sure that I used the correct measurements to in order to create the perfect square as well as making sure to include all features such as the album cover including the name of the album and of the singer; I also decided
and of the singer; I also decided to add a parental advisory logo as some of the songs include adult language, therefore adults will be aware prior to playing the album with young children. I had a lot of fun designing the back cover, here I believe that I challenged the forms and conventions of digipacks as I decided to create a unique design by decorating the page with white scribbles, resembling written words, relating to the fact that she wrote her own songs, creating a closer relationship with the audience. Another way of challenging the conventions was by including the manipulated image in the inner cover resembling the style of a polaroid picture. However, for the rest of the design I believe that I followed all of the forms and conventions of real life digipacks; this was by: including institutional information in the back cover, all of the songs featured in the album, a barcode, a message from the artist and a simple image in the inside of the album to make the album feel more personal and involving for the fans. In terms of the design and colour scheme it reflects very much the music video as all of the colours which are present contrast each other, for instance the black with the bright baby pink. I chose to go for a neutral however also an eyecatching colour scheme in order to capture fully the personality of the artist and of her music, making her and her music come across as being quite feminine, calming, urban and honest. The third and final product was a music video. This is something which is completely different and which can’t be compared to any other project as it’s a moving image, therefore something which I’ve never attempted to produce
before as I’ve never had the chance. I’ve always been interested in directing, producing and most importantly editing any type of moving image as I’ve been always fascinated to learn how to, in this case create a professional music video. As I’ve never worked with a moving image product I decided to watch many different types of music videos of all different genres. Watching all of these inspirational music videos helped me to decide to choose the type of music video which I wanted to produce. At first I was set with the idea to produce a narrative based music video as I really liked a song which gave me the possibility to create a simple love story; however, I wanted to move from the conventional style and be creative and experiment with everything which I possibly could, therefore I decided to choose the song by Jorja Smith ‘On my mind’ which is a more energetic and upbeat song, which straight away motivated me to push my boundaries. From previous examples I noticed how everyone is very keen on producing something stereotypical, such as the usual boy meets girl situation, however I decided create a performance based music video in which I’ve encountered a few difficulties, such as making sure that the lip syncing matched the song, that my singer had to come across as being very confident and portray herself as a strong character which is something not very easy to achieve. I decided to use three main locations: London, a studio and a room, in order to create a variety of scenes and shots. Also in terms of the camera I wanted to produce a variety of different angles such as high and low, many close ups so that the audience would feel a closer connection to the singer
and establishing shots so that it added some variety of scenes. Mise en scene was also a very important aspect as before going out and shooting I had to make sure to plan all of the props which I needed for each specific location, all of the outfits for each occasion, alongside with the makeup and hair style. Mise en scene is vital in order to fully represent the artist and the genre of the song, also it make the video look aesthetically pleasing and engaging for the audience. The editing was the longest part of the production of my music video. It took a lot of time and perseverance, as it wasn’t fun all the time. However, through editing I believe that it gave me the biggest opportunity to truthfully portray the genre of the song and the artist, by adding flavours of different colours, rhythm and style. Through the use of the camera angles, editing and mise en scene my aim was to represent my artist as being a powerful feminine figure with a hint of sexuality, and I believe that I’ve managed to portray that throughout my video relating to Andrew Godwin’s theory of the Star Image approach as the shots in my music video make the singer the centre of attention.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
A
s previously mentioned all of my three final products link and relate to each other as their aim is to promote the music of a specific artist; however, each product serves a different specific purpose. To begin with the music magazine advert has a sole purpose to promote the album of the singer and in certain instances also a number one hit which can be found in the album. This advert was produced for a music magazine meaning that it will only be found in magazines of a similar genre of the album such as: Billboard, Q, NME … However, this advert could also be utilized in different ways, such as in train stations, on billboards, on buses and social media accounts such as: Instagram, twitter, snapchat and Facebook. I believe that this final product did serve its purpose successfully as it engages the audiences to buy the album due to being convincing as it includes many different reviews from important names and it also has an interesting image which engages the fans to know more about the music. In order to make sure that during the creation of this product I kept my target audience in mind and the genre of the music which I am advertising, I decided to use contrasting and primary colours to reflect the urban style of the music which I’m promoting. The second ancillary product was the digipack which helped with selling the CD of my artist. I believe that it has a purpose of persuasion as its main aim is to
appeal to the audience and to the fans, however I also think that it’s not a vital product for the promotion of the music as now at days barely anyone actually buys physical copies of the album of an artist. Therefore due to this, the main audience which the digipack is trying to appeal ,is the actual fans of the singer as they would be more likely to buy a paper copy of the album as they feel that they have a closer and personal relationship with the singer and the music; due to this I tried to design the digipack so that it would appeal to the fans , for instance in the inside cover I included a distorted image of the singer with a question underneath it so that It would engage the fans and feel like they are personally talking to the singer. In terms of the design and style of this product I made sure that both the advert and the digipack related to each other, therefore I used the same image as the music magazine advert for the front cover of the album with a black background to resemble the advert so that the album would be easily recognizable to an outside audience. The rest of the colours I used were pastel and neutral colours to keep up with the urban / soul music genre and to reflect the style of the singer. I believe that this product served successfully its purpose which was to appeal and to create a more intimate and closer relationship with the fans of the singer, and this would have to be mainly thanks to the scribbly and urban style of the digipack as it truly portrays the singer as being an authentic songwriter and
musician. Lastly the main product was the music video. The music video was a different engaging and challenging task from which I learned many different and new things. The main purpose of this product was to promote the hit song of my singer, as well as promoting her and her music. Being a performance based music video this enabled her to fully express her personality and style through her body language and mise en scene. I believe that the music video portrayed her authenticity and sincerity and that her fans would feel much closer to her as they were able to understand parts of her personality. The theme and style of the music video is very old school, edgy and urban all at the same time as its reflecting different personality traits of the singer and of her music. I believe that the combination of my music video as my main product and the ancillary texts was very effective as a whole. This is due to individually serving a similar however different purpose towards the promotion of the music of the singer. Obviously aside from including other different promotional methods such as live interviews, radio appearances, articles etc… these three products were the main important ones in order to make the singer gain attention and gain some popularity in the music industry.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
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udience feedback would have to be one of the most important aspects when creating your own product from scratch. Feedback helps you to see things which you wouldn’t necessarily notice on your own and helps you to understand how to change and improve upon certain features. Prior to the creation and production of each of my final products I already had in mind who my target audience was in order to successfully promote my final product. My target audience includes mainly females from 15 to 25 years, of a unique style, which enjoy listening to music throughout their day, that enjoy going regularly to gigs and live events; they are updated on new music and upcoming artists, enjoy listening to music via stream as well as buying hard copies of albums.
final products. The most effective type of feedback which I believe helped me and contributed to some changes were the video feedbacks and the survey. This is because the videos truly expressed the way the person which was giving the feedback felt about specific things, as I asked questions on the spot which they had to answer straight away, therefore they were much more honest and helpful as criticisms helps to improve. The survey gave me an understanding of what my target audience liked and disliked, meaning that I added and got rid of specific elements of each final product in order to satisfy the audiences opinions.
In order to understand whether or not I was heading towards the right direction during the production of all of my final tasks, I decided to collect a variety of audience feedback from people which I knew and which fitted into my target audience, meaning that I could understand whether or not I was heading in the right direction with what I was producing. I generated different types of feedback such as through the use of videos, voice recordings, written responses and via a survey. I wanted to make sure that I generated a variety of different feedbacks in order to collect as much feedback as possible as I believe is a critical stage for the process of all of my
I always found that feedback is a way of improving something, whether is positive or negative it makes you understand the good and bad aspects. Some examples of criticism were when I had to choose the song for my music video. I wanted to use a completely different type of song with a different genre and style, this was ‘Teenage fantasy’ and this song meant that I would have had to create a narrative based music video and when it came to explaining my proposal, people were telling me how I was overcomplicating myself and the music video, and how I should choose a more fun and rhythmic song so that I could experiment with much more than
only aesthetically pleasing shots. A second example was when it came with choosing which picture to use as my music magazine advert and the front cover of my digipack. I was set with the idea of using this mid shot of my singer against a shop window looking directly at the camera with a warm pink background, this looked very nice with both products and I liked the idea of direct address with the audience , however thanks to the feedback which I received, I came to terms with the fact that the image carried no meaning or deep message, however differently the image which I ended up choosing carried a lot of different meanings which was perfect as I wanted the singer to portray a message across which wasn’t only with her music , but also through her expressions and personality.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? One think not to forget is the fact that I was able to produce all of my final tasks thanks to the use of digital technology and software. To start with, before I produced any of my final products I planned a list of equipment which I needed for each specific location so that I was prepared and adjusted to different situations. Before using any type of technology I researched about them and watched some videos in order to understand how to successfully use them as I never produced a
moving image before. The main and most important form of technology which I used was the camera Canon EO5-100D with a 52mm lens. I was lucky for having the chance to use a camera like that as it enabled me to come out with a professional outcome on screen. During the different occasions when I went out to shoot scenes for my music video I also took a series of pictures to use for the music magazine advert and the digipack; here I switched up lenses as when I was using the 52mm lens as it made the image very close up and it wasn’t giving me what I wanted, therefore I switched it to a 58mm lense. I always wanted the chance to experiment and play with a green
screen, therefore I decided to include green screen in my music video in order to make it different in compare to other music videos; during the studio shooting I had to set up the green screen as well
as other backdrop colours such as black. Here I had to set up different types of lights in order to make sure that the green screen was of a unique colour, without any shadows, as this would have caused me problems during the editing process. I had some previous experience with setting up lights thanks to having produced previously two music magazines, where I used the studio to take professional
pictures, however before using any type of lighting I planned a diagram where I designed a map with different keys saying where each type of lighting had to be placed in the studio so that I was prepared. In the bed scene, in order to create those different light effects, I used an LED desk TopElek lamp and placed coloured light gel filters against it so that it gave out different coloured shades. Using light gels was also
interesting in the studio, I wanted to recreate the effects of coloured flashing lights, however this wasn’t available, so I decided to stick different coloured light gels together and move them up and down against the key lighting light so that it gave the impression of a disco ball. After gathering all of the footage and images which I needed it was time to use, learn and experiment with different software, some which I had experience with before and others which I had never used before. Firstly, to produce both the music magazine advert and the digipack I used Adobe InDesign. This was fairly simple to work with as I have a lot of previous experience with this software due to having produced two music magazines, therefore I knew all of the simple basic tools and other techniques which I learned during the way; the overall tools which I mainly used were: the shape tool, text tool etc...In order to use original fonts and text styles I used a website called ‘Dafont’ from which I’ve gathered all of the fonts which can be seen in my final products. In terms of the pictures which I used, I edited all of them by using an app called Glitch, this enabled me to use cool and edgy filters, allowing me to obtain images completely different from others. I
didn’t use Photoshop as firstly I never really used it before and secondly I wanted my images to have a specific look and having previously used that application before I decided to use that in order to edit my pictures. When it came to the editing of my music video I used Adobe PremierPro CC 2018 ,I did work previously with this software on different occasions, however I never truly understood how to use it, for everything which I wanted to achieve or understand how to work I would go on YouTube and teach myself. As I’ve always used IMovie for the creation of personal moving images I was confident with how to work with the green screen, therefore I edited all of the green screen footage by using IMovie and then later on I would import it in PremierPro and continue with the editing of my music video. I also used After Effects in order to create a video where you could see a video appearing from underneath a text, and this can be seen at the very start of my music
video. It’s important to remember that all of the coursework which I produced was shared via a blog by WordPress, I believe that using
online blogs is very interesting and entreating as firstly it’s easier
to access it, understand whether or not a person has developed and improved during the duration of the entire project. Using a blog to post all of your coursework meant that I had to utilize different platforms from which I had to post all of my work therefore, I decided to make use of videos by using YouTube and Vimeo, Emaze, Prezi and Slideshare. They were fun and interesting to use, even though they sometimes gave me a hard time as they worked slowly or didn’t respond, but unfortunately that is a problem which you will encounter if you’re using the internet in general. lastly is important to take into consideration the type of technology used during the evaluation; in order to produce an entertaining and engaging evaluation I decided to use a variety of methods with how I will be presenting the evaluation, I used Issuu in order to generate a magazine issue of my evaluation, a podcast, a video, a commentary about my music video and a short documentary which wraps everything together.