Codes & Conventions- Evaluation.

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


Codes and Conventions

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2. Combination of the main product and ancillary tasks- Evaluation.

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

Combination of the main product and ancillary tasks

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3.Audience Feedback- Evaluation.

''What have you learnt from your audience feedback?''


We believe with the help of the internet we were able to gain a very good amount of feedback from our audience. With the help of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, we were able to share our music video for people to have a look at, and gain comments of their opinions, and comments if they believed something had to be improved on the music video. Therefore we decided we shall set up a Facebook page, and add members to the group in order for them to leave their opinion on everything Anthem Beats Records does. The reactions and comments we received on the music video were quite unbelievably good , as everyone seemed to be shocked about what the story was and most of all what the ending was. We got complimented quite well on the editing when the boy got ran over. Compliments on the performance shots were also received from many, as they believe it linked well together with the music video and the narrative. 

After analyzing the questionnaire we created my group and I believe that most of the people we received feedback from, believe that our performance shots were a little bit more stronger than our narrative shots. We think that we had a different variety of shots in this video, that really carried the song through. Due to the lack of our time management, we weren't able to create more performance shots with different varieties of camera shots Avril Lavigne used in the original 'when you're gone' music video. The majority of the people thought that our music video was appropriate to our chosen genre and everyone seemed to keep up with the story line and they believed the editing was done well.


YouTube

Here is evidence of the following feedback we received from our audience, after posting our music video to YouTube. We are quite proud of the views we managed to get and the likes we received. Thankfully, after the feedback from these YouTube comments we did not have to make any changes to the music video, as no one seemed to find any mistakes in it.




Facebook

As you can already see, in my previous blog post I have added evidence about the comments we have received on our music video from my facebook friends.  But here is an example of a feedback we have received, where this individual took a look at the story, the camera shots that have been used in the music video and how well they work together and she also quite enjoyed the acting too.


-Here are the results of the questionnaire we have set up on our facebook group, and the results we have received.

4.Use of new media technologies- Evaluation.

      'How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of your project?' 


         When my group and I began working on this project, the main impact that new media technologies has had on our project is the use of the internet. When we began the research and planning, we found it extremely easy to access sites such as YouTube, in order to be able to look at different music video genres, whereas about ten years ago, we would of had to rely on music channel's such as MTV to play our chosen music video. We decided to read the comments the audience has left on a couple of music videos of our chosen genre, which gave us a good view of what they enjoyed and hated about it. We decided to have our storyboard drawn by hand, because we thought it gave us a much more clear view on what we would like to see when we were about to start filming shots for our music video, therefor by having everything planned, when it came to film the video everything went much more easier than we expected. Although another easier way we could of done it, was by taking screen captures from existing music videos and match them together, therefor we would of had a clearer view on the mise en scene, lighting and props.

         When producing our work, we had to use Adobe Premier PRO in order to edit our music video. It had all the essentials we were looking for, and needed to cut between scenes and to match our shots together, it was very confusing and hard to understand the program in the first couple of weeks, but once we got into it and knew the tools we had to use, editing our music video went flawlessly easy.

         For our ancillary task, we used Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended. Once again, another editing program that was new to two members of our group hence one, has worked with it at AS level. We found it quite confusing to work with it at the beginning, but once we understood it everything went much more easier. We learnt how to crop, move, rotate, reduce/increase the brightness of the photo, use brushes to create our front, middle double page spread, back cover and poster, and much more. For our photo shoot, we decided to remain local, so our pictures were taken around the school grounds. We have used an Olympus Digital Camera to have our photos taken with, therefor we gained outstanding quality pictures and the camera had the option itself of changing effects such as clarity, vibrance etc.

      The biggest advantage we managed to gain from the internet was by being able to present all the research, plan and everything we have done on this blog. SlideShare allowed us to embed our PowerPoint slides onto the blog very easily. Gaining audience feedback, was really easy once we uploaded our music video to YouTube, and were able to share it to social websites such as facebook and twitter. Also the facebook group we have set up, was a big advantage since our members were able to see all the work my group and I have uploaded, and managed to have all our blogs linked to it so the audience can leave feedback on what we are working on.


New Technologies

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CD Artwork

Here is the final version of our CD Artwork and its inlays.

Magazine Advert

Here is the final version of our magazine advert in order to promote the release of the album.

Evaluation Scheme

So now that my group and I have completed our music video and ancillary tasks (will be up on the blog soon), we are now individually focusing on completing the evaluation. We have been given the following questions to answer, in no particular order in our evaluation.

-> In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the codes and conventions of real media products?
-> How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary tasks?
-> What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
-> How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of your project?

Audience feedback graph results & video comments.

After we finished our music video and with the help of the internet, uploaded it to YouTube, we decided to share it on different social network sites such as facebook&twitter in order to gain as much audience feedback as we possibly could, to see if any changes might be required to make. We decided to ask no more than 25 people, that fit in our target audience, the following questions, and here are the results we managed to getAudience feedback graph results

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Twitter

We believed sharing our music video on twitter will help us gain more audience views, therefor more chances of feedback from each one of them. On Twitter, people are able to 'compose a tweet' about almost anything they have on their minds, and be able to have their 'tweet' re-tweeted by someone that follows them. Therefor, when I shared our music video on my twitter page, my 28 followers were able to have a look at it, and when it was re-tweeted by my fellow group mate, her 332 followers were able to have a look at the video and so on, to whoever kept re-tweeting it.

Facebook

Final Version Of Our Music Video

Here is the finished and final version of our music video.

Continued Album Cover Research.

Front & Middle Cover Process

   

        
      
          My group and I are currently working on creating and developing our ancillary tasks. The following pictures on the left-side are the front & middle cover in development for our album, therefor they are currently the unfinished products. We have already finished doing our photo shoots and were all very happy with the photos that have come out. We have choose that our theme will be Punk Prom Style  and showing that I have been cheating, and asking people not to reveal my secret. Therefor we came up with the idea as for the album to be called 'Secrets', in the front cover there will be a photo of me sat on the wall, putting on an evil smile, therefor making people wonder what the secret is about.













   
 

       The middle cover, is about me in a relationship with a boy, but cheating on him with someone else. Therefore, when the audience opens the album, they will understand what everything is about. We think this works very well with our music video, hence the whole story is about cheating. We choose the tag line to be 'If you love two people at the same time, choose the second.. because if you loved the first one, you wouldn't have fallen for the second.' The back cover for our album is currently still in development and we didn't manage yet, to put up evidence on the blog about it.

Ancillary Task Photoshoot

Ancillary Task Photoshoot

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Storyboard

The following drawings are the story boards for the final piece of our music video which our group has created in order for us and the audience to understand what we are after in the music video. This story board allows us to see the different camera angles and types of shots we are after and to show what we aim for.

Here is the storyboard for the ending of our music video.

Anthem Beatz Records up on Facebook.

We believe the internet is a place where everyone is able to share their thoughts and opinions on something. Because of this we decided to create a group on facebook, and add members who can leave feedback's and comments about everything Anthem Beatz Record's does.

CD Cover Inspiration.

After the amount of research we have done on the similar genre artists, in order to get an idea of what our CD Cover Artwork should look like we have found some inspiration for our artwork. When we have analysed CD Covers from our genre we discovered that they were quite funky and simple. To not break the codes and conventions of our genre, we want to be creative and simple with our CD Cover and Poster, and make them look Punk/Pop-Rock style and using Adobe Photoshop to edit them with. Below are a couple of existing CD Covers from a different genre artist, to ours that we looked at and would like to make our cover look similarly the same, but to add more of a rock theme because the 'Taylor Swift' & 'Jessica Simpson' one look more of a alternative country style theme. 'Selena Gomez and The Scene' album cover looks, much similar as the one we are thinking to create, because of the dark make up, and the rock style denim jacket she is wearing and the dark background.

When You're Gone Lyrics Analysis.

Below you can find the lyrics to our chosen song, 'When You're Gone' The main framework to this song is about being with someone you love, and you have to say goodbye, and all the little things you miss about them. The lyrics are quite upsetting and filled with sadness and heartbreak. So after doing this research, we decided that in our music video, we will keep the theme quite dark and heartbreaking, despite the fact that there will be a large amount of performance.

I always needed time on my own
I never thought I'd need you there when I cry
And the days feel like years when I'm alone
And the bed where you lie is made up on your side

When you walk away I count the steps that you take
Do you see how much I need you right now?

When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
When you're gone
The face I came to know is missing too
When you're gone
The words I need to hear to always get me through
The day and make it ok
I miss you

I've never felt this way before
Everything that I do reminds me of you
And the clothes you left, they lie on the floor
And they smell just like you, I love the things that you do

When you walk away I count the steps that you take
Do you see how much I need you right now?

When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
And when you're gone
The face I came to know is missing too
And when you're gone
The words I need to hear to always get me through
The day and make it ok
I miss you

We were made for each other
Out here forever
I know we were, yeah
And all I ever wanted was for you to know
Everything I'd do, I'd give my heart and soul
I can hardly breathe I need to feel you here with me, yeah

When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
And when you're gone
The face I came to know is missing too

And when you're gone
All the words I need to hear will always get me through
The day and make it ok
I miss you 

Small Changes.

During Thursday afternoon while me and my group decided to return to the classroom to work on some editing, my media teacher who taught us at AS Level, decided to come over and check the process of our music video. While she was watching what we have created so far, she believed our narrative shots didn't really relate together, and gave us a much better idea that we can use, using the same story line we picked but develop it in a less complicated way. So in our old narrative, where we had the two different story lines: Gabby's & Niall's story (Gabriella Cotton and Niall Corish) (Acting as girlfriend & boyfriend) fighting because the boyfriend cheated on her with another girl. And Holly's story (Holly Cantle), a young teenager crying over the death of her best friend. Our teacher's idea was to, try and relate the stories together such as use Holly to be the girl, Niall is cheating on Gabby with. Unfortunately, due to small major reasons, Holly wasn't up for playing this part, so I talked to a very close friend of mine and she said she would play this part. Our narrative so far is very similar to the old one, Gabby finds out that the boy she is engaged to is cheating on her with another girl called Lauren (Lauren Gage).

Poster Analysis.

One other thing that belongs to our Digi Pack, is to create a poster in order to advertise the release of our CD and Music Video. I have looked at a few posters from artists of the similar genre, to analyze them and get inspiration from.

Avril Lavigne- The Best Damn Thing (2007)

This is a poster advertising the release of Avril Lavigne's 2007 album 'The Best Damn Thing'. The image is the same as the one she has on the album. This poster is very simple, with Avril in a mid-shot with a simple grey background, and her name, and the name of the album printed on the top left hand corner with a very punky pink heart in the background. The overall theme of the artwork is kept the same in terms of fonts.






Maroon 5 -Hands All Over Me (2011)

This advertisement poster by Maroon 5 is pretty easy to create. Its in black and white with slight bits of red in it to make the title stand out a little bit better. It features a simple black and white image of the band itself, that cannot be found on the album itself. It advertises a concert the band will be having in the specific place at the specific time to be able to promote their new album 'Hands All Over Me' with the album artwork and few of the singles that can be found on the album showed on the poster. The plain white font is set on the image which comes across as quite effective with this style of artwork.   




P!nk- I'm Not Dead (2006)

I find this poster to be very creative because of the use of the colors and images, and the pose P!nk does.I like the roses in front of the image because it also matches the red-white striped shirt she is wearing and makes the poster stand out. The font below it titling the name of the album, which comes across as quite effective  The image that is featured on this poster, can actually be found on the exact album itself. Pink said she titled the album 'I'm Not Dead' because ''its about being alive and feisty and not sitting down and shutting up even though people would like you to'.

CD Cover Analysis.

In preparation for our ancillary tasks, our next step for this project is to start analyzing CD Covers and Posters of our similar genre. I have decided to analyse three CD Covers from three artists with the similar genre of POP/POP-ROCK music.


Avril Lavigne-Goodbye Lullaby (2011)

This is the album cover for Avril Lavigne's 2011 release for Goodbye Lullaby. I shall start analyzing the mise-en-scene of this album, and as we can see Avril is led on a black piano dressed in a white long dress which signifies innocence and purity, also covered in cream colored flowers around her. Her makeup and hair look messy, (typical pop-rock style) and the back ground of this cover is green, which with the help of a software such as Photoshop looks like a forest covered in green plants. What I really like about this cover is that it’s got a very different style using a background which looks out into a forest, rather than a plain colored background. Another thing I admire about this cover is Avril in her white dress led on the black piano, looking very innocent and upset. The CD cover is looking pretty simple with what looks like a black and white effect, with Avril in white a dress sitting on the floor looking upset. The Back Cover of the album has the similar background to the Front Cover, the only difference is Avril sitting in a different position on the piano with her focus to the camera in a Mid-Shot/Medium Close-Up.

P!nk- Funhouse (2008)

This is the album cover for Pink's 2008 release for Funhouse. I like this imagine because its fun looking and quite punky, it also has Pink in it and she shows that she is having a really good time, as if she doesn't care about anything, which is also quite rebellious. Yet this image is quite child like, as it has a carousel horse which she seems to be riding. Pink's outfit looks like a circus costume which also fits in with the title 'funhouse'. The font in the background is very circus like as well. I think this image is showing her genre style of music is pop, but quite rocky as she doesn't come across as being the typical pop artist. The CD cover is similar alike, with Pink riding a carousel horse wearing a long pink dress with colorful balloons around her. The back cover of the album, has different font style of credits, more circus like in the black colour. Pink is sat on what seems its a sandy beach looking straight at the camera with trumpet next to her.  

Florence and The Machine- Lungs (2009)

This is the album cover for Florence and The Machine's 2009 release for Lungs. I choose this cover because I think it stood out, and it represents the band and the album really well. The image on this cover is colorful, but they have used subtle simple colors which made it look quite a cold image. Another thing I also like about this cover is that they used a pair of lungs on her, to fit with the title of the album. I like it how she is posing against the tree covered up with flowers around her. This image sums up the band, because I think they are more of a rock indie genre, and this image really shows that, compared to how a rock band  would have they're image presented. The title of the band is presented on the top and even the style font matches the cover as it is white and the writing is flowed and isn't block letters like the album's title written at the bottom. I like the way they have chosen to place the album's title on her body over the lungs  because it is focusing on the lungs which the audience will notice and want to look at more, as it would be interesting to see why they have called the album 'Lungs' and actually have lungs shown on the cover.

Music Video Analysis.

I am thinking on analyzing a couple of music videos, with an idea of what our music video will look like. I have picked music videos that are similar to our genre and follows the required codes and conventions.

Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera- Moves Like Jagger.

  
The song is introduced by a whistle melody and light, funky guitar in the key of B minor. Adam Levine tries his best to impress his female interest with dance moves like Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger: "I don't need to try to control you / Look into my eyes and I'll own you / With the moves like Jagger / I got the moves like Jagger / I got the mooooooves like Jagger." Aguilera appears mid-way through the song's bridge, playing her role as a tease: "You want to know how to make me smile / Take control, own me just for the night / But if I share my secret / You gonna have to keep it / Nobody else can see this." The shots in this music video are mostly mid-shots and long shots to show the people dancing around. Since it doesn't really have a complicated story line, everything is only simply set on a stage, where Adam Lavine does his best to impress women by dancing to Mick Jagger's moves. There are many quick shots to be found in this music video, to show the different moves each dancer makes. I have chosen to analyze this music video, since Maroon 5 are a well known pop-rock band, and they're music videos happen to follow all the right codes and conventions a pop-rock music video needs. The costumes in this music video are very much the 80's style.


Avril Lavigne- Girlfriend.

It features two girls: one with glasses and red hair (Lavigne), and one with a rebellious persona and black hair (also Lavigne). The video begins inside the building where the red-haired girl and her boyfriend are walking together. Lavigne sees her and shows her an intimidating disposition. As the couple walk away, Lavigne begins to sing the song and tries her luck on the red-haired girl's boyfriend. Featured in the video are scenes of Lavigne fighting over the man with the red-haired girl and trying to outdo her repeatedly. Between the scenes we see Lavigne, now with pink streaked blonde hair, singing with her band accompanying her at the back. The video also featured Lavigne and her friends dancing in a restroom. After the starting scene, the video shows them at Li'l Indy, where they ride go-carts. Here, Lavigne is seen viciously bumping the car of the red-haired girl, causing her to spin around and lose control. Next, the red-haired girl and her boyfriend get inside a photo booth where Lavigne hears them and grabs the red-haired girl away before they take pictures. Lavigne's friends then block the red-haired girl's way to give her more time.

The next scene shows the couple eating together, where Lavigne sees them, throws the food away and kisses the red-haired girl's boyfriend. It is nighttime when the next scene was shown. This scene takes place in a miniature golf course where the couple are playing, and the red-haired girl cheerfully wins.

Unfortunately for her, Lavigne and her friends are also present at the scene. As soon as she and her friends see them, Lavigne hits her in the head with a golf ball, and the red-haired girl splashes down below and into the water. Her boyfriend tries to grab her hand but misses. Finally, the last scene shows the man waiting for Lavigne. As she comes toward him, they soon hold hands together, and the red-haired girl sees them and tries to seize Lavigne (at the same time trying to get her boyfriend back). But Lavigne ducks down and the man moves sideways as soon as the red-haired girl charges towards Lavigne. She then tumbles all the way down and falls into a Porta Potty ahead, where she gives a look of desperation towards the camera, showing that she has failed to win back her boyfriend. Lavigne then finally wins the youth's affections. The video ends when she takes her new boyfriend into a bathroom stall and slightly opens the door after a moment and pumps her arm in victory. The narrative of this music video works very well with the lyrics of this song, and with the performance shots. The performance shots mainly consist of Avril and a band with guitars and drum kits singing and dancing with her dancers in a pink Punk style studio room. The costumes for this music video are quite Rock style mainly black, pink and white.  


Avril Lavigne- My Happy Ending.

This video is about a relationship between Avril and her 'boyfriend' (in the video) that doesn't seem to work out, and the hardest thing about it is saying goodbye to all the memories and every other good thing that happened between them. The performance shots of this video consist of Avril singing at what it looks like to be a very old cinema. The costumes are very simple, teenage casual. In her performance shots she wears a black simple top, with black leggings and a pink tutu-skirt on top of it with big black boots, at the end of the video where she sings with the band she wears the same top, but this time with black knee length trousers, black stripped socks and All Star Converse trainers. The video begins with Lavigne running down a street and entering a cinema, where she finds the film playing is a montage of her memories concerning a specific relationship she had. At first, the memories (shown in full color) are happy, depicting Lavigne at the park with her boyfriend, as he hands her a flower and they laugh together. They are also shown goofing off inside a laundromat. However, as Lavigne sings "so much for my happy ending", the memories start to lose color. Lavigne and her boyfriend lie in bed together, as she looks at him and he (obviously reeling from a disagreement) stares blankly away. The relationship culminates during the song's bridge inside a grocery store, where the boyfriend antagonizes Lavigne, insisting that he talk to her. He grabs her and tries to pull her into his embrace. Fed up, Lavigne turns and pushes him away. She proceeds to run out of the grocery store and down the street (from the beginning of the video), and to a guitar shop where she grabs a guitar and walks to the roof of the building, where she is seen performing with her band. There, she walks past the unapologetic boyfriend without looking at him. The theater film tears and the memories end, leaving the final seconds of the video as a close-up on Lavigne in the theater as she tries to decide if the break-up is happy after all. In the end, three other girls leave with Lavigne who know about the breakup as they watch from the restaurant.

Following Steps To Complete.

So far my group and I filmed footage of performance and narrative shots, and we have edited everything we did so far. Our next step to achieve, is adding more performance and narrative shots into our music video, to finish this project. In order for us to get the best outcome possible,we shall discuss this as a group, by planning everything through story boarding. After looking at different pop-rock genre music videos, we shall follow the same story line we followed so far and research into the types of shots we used so far to make sure we follow the right conventions of the genre.

Our song 'when you're gone' is about being with someone you love, and you have to say goodbye, and all the little things you happen to miss about them. According to Avril Lavigne, she did not intend the song to be a love song, but she was writing a slow song and the process brought out "all that emotional stuff" in her.

Therefor we have added a story line which turns into arguing. The following story line we thinking on adding into our music video, is about a mother and daughter short brief story line.
After all this is completed, my group and I shall be focusing on creating the ancillary task which consists of a CD Cover and a poster for our music video. In order to do this, we shall research into different CD Covers and posters of our genre and take motivation from the research we have gained. Our CD Cover and poster will symbolize our music company, and the music video we have chosen to create. We will also be setting up Facebook and Twitter pages, to allow our audience to know what 'Anthem Beatz Records' are up to, and working on. With the help of Adobe Photoshop we shall be creating these two tasks (CD Cover & Poster) as this program will help us create and edit and make the work look professional and polished.

Theorists.

Michael Shore
-Michael Shore concludes that music videos are recycled styles that contains an information overload and therefore contains views of adolescent male fantasies. Most videos contain elements of speed, power, girls, and wealth.
Andrew Goodwin
- Andrew Goodwin has identified a number of key features which distinguish the music video as a form:
- There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating,amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.
- There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating,amplifying or contradicting the music.
- Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography- Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the main artist or vocalist
- Voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially in the treatment of females, butalso in terms of systems of looking. Some examples are screens within screens,cameras, mirrors, etc.- there are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films andTV texts, these provide further gratification and pleasure for the viewers/fans.