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

In a few ways, I have met the conventions of an average music video. I included a lot of short shots which would change every few seconds, I included a narrative and lip-syncing. However, I also consider myself to have challenged the conventions as well.

For my music video, I gave particular attention to mise-en-scene; One of my actors was made up by me to look like an alien/monster. Although this desire for a strange or almost supernatural look has begun to settle into the conventions of an average music video (e.g. Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj) It only seems to be given attention to in certain genres. Electro-Pop is a genre that often uses the lighting and special effects rather than the actual makeup. 

So in some respects, I have challenged the Electro-Pop genre through my use of make-up. On the other hand, I have also conformed to the conventions which I stated; I used a lot of coloured lighting for my video from different angles to get a variety of shots. As as well as that, I included many effects over the top; I used effects such as a mirror effect and emboss to make the video seem even stranger.

     The lighting really changed the entirety of the video, turning it from something plain into something scary and strange. 

Here I used an effect called 'Emboss' which allowed to make multiply the amount of Megan's. I thought it made the video look quite scary and strange and really connected to general electro music videos.

I also used a projector for one part of the music video to project text onto the walls. 

   I cut back and forth between clips often in the video, which gave it a very interesting effect. A lot of music videos tend to include small clips, but when I made mine even shorted by switching back and forth between them it had a fantastic effect on them.

With my ancillary text, I challenged the normal conventions of digipaks based on my genre. A wide range of albums which fall under the Electro/Synthpop genre focus more on having a words, the artists name or a symbol as their front cover; images of the artists or anyone else doesn't appear as often. I talk about this on my planning blog in a post here. 

In my original design, I had considered combining an image of the artists with a logo, therefore developing the conventions of ancillary texts of this genre.

However, when it got to actually creating the ancillary text, I decided to go a different way and went with what pictures I thought worked best for my artist. This was the product I came out with:

I think this product looks better than how the original design would have looked if it had gotten to this stage because it didn't really relate to the completed video like this one did. I think the first design makes the relationship between the two more friendly than how it's meant to appear, whereas in my final product they do not look like friends, but instead correspond with how they acted in the video.

I think the magazine advert works better than the original design for it as it is quite different from the cover of the digipak case. By including an image of the design of the digipak cover it shows a corresponding link between them. The advert draws the attention of the audience by the bright purple and yellow colours and the image of the strange eyes. This also helps to advertise the video for the song as it links to the music video instead of the digipak cover. The name of the artist takes up a lot of space from being so large and helps the name to be recognised more easily. The name also slightly goes onto the picture, meaning you can't look at the image without noticing to title as well. Like the majority of music magazine adverts, I included a release date for the album as well as putting the website URL of the artist. This makes audiences more aware of the artist in question and get to know more about them. I also decided to put 'includes hit single "lies"' on there, influenced by other magazine advertisements which often list singles which have gotten into mainstream media in order to advertise the artist more.  

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

In my three products, I have clearly linked the three together through references to the video.

For the front of the booklet/front cover, I used a photo I took of the actors of the video in full makeup. I put effects on them to make it more interesting and I focused the colour on Leah's character; she is the human character of course and the use of red colours in the image can be symbolic of a danger sign. Whether that would be referring to Leah's character for the things she has done or to Megan's character who is haunting her, it could be anyone's interpretation. 

      For the back of the booklet, I used a screenshot from the music video instead of taking a photo on a camera like with the front of the booklet. Not only do I think this works better but it also links directly to the music video and to the front of the booklet through the actors. I think the effects used are reminiscent of the video.

I did the same for the disk cover as the back of the booklet and took a screenshot of Megan's eye from the video. I think it works well for the CD as it's quite scary and connects well to the other two covers. I think the way the pupil has disappeared from the design of the CD also makes it even scarier.

      Once again I chose to use a screenshot from the music video to do the back of the digipak. I think as this was such an important moment in the video that it works really well in the digipak, especially as the back of the digipak. 

For my magazine advert, I took a still from my music video to create a poster for it. A lot of digipaks have magazine adverts which don't directly correspond with the album, although it is often to find that an artist will have a magazine advert which is the same as the front cover of the digipak. While I considered this at first, I found that using my album cover was a bad idea as it wasn't as eye-catching as it needed to be. By using a still from my music video instead of an external image, it means that there is still a connection to the ancillary text and music video. By using the vivid colours of yellow and purple it made my image more eye-catching and attractive to the audience who would see it.  

let, something which the majority of digipaks do. I think this aspect of the ancillary texts helps to connect them all together and to advertise for the products. 

For audience research, I most got a response that they all connected to the video they had seen and that the images all worked well for the digipak. The main criticism was that because of the colour scheme it made the images seem to clash slightly and made them seem less connected than they should be. 

From analysing other digipaks, I have been able to use the conventions of a digipak in my own. For example, using a bold image for the front cover, with the artist name in a font that becomes their brand. I think that by using the font I did use it brands the artists with that font and helps the audience to recognise the type of music they do just through the font and the image. 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After handing out a questionnaire for feedback to some of those who watched it, I got back the feedback that I expected to get. I think one problem with my video was that I admittedly had to rush editing some parts of the video and that my carelessness in those parts has affected how the video is viewed. 

1. After watching the video, what are your first impressions?

The main feedback I got for this was that first of all, the video was scary, freaky, etc. which was what I was going for with my video. I decided that it was a good way to go even though it ende up creepier than I imagined it would be. Other comments told me about how they liked the use of makeup and costume which was a major part of the video. I was proud of the work I did with Megan's makeup and am glad that the audience enjoyed it and found no criticisms with it.

2. Did you think the music fit well with the video?

For this, the majority of answers were a short and simple 'yes'. However, other answers expanded much more on their answers; one person told me that they enjoyed the way the editing helped to fit the video to the beat and tempo of the song, while another told me that the words of the song fit very well with the actions in the video. I am happy to find my editing managed to fit with the beat of the song, as this was a big concern for me that I would end up making it too fast or too slow.

3. What did you like about the video?

Every person who answered either mentioned the makeup or the lighting and projection used. One person added, "The use of lighting that was used added to the atmosphere" which I agree with. I think that without the use of lighting, the video wouldn't have been anywhere near as good. Others mentioned the use of a projection, something that I added in on a whim instead of having been planned; Through the response I got to it, I would say that it was a good idea to use it. While having a plan of what you want to do is best, it's always good to improvise when you can because you don't know what results you might get.

4. What did you dislike about the video?

The majority of answers focused on the lip syncing used in the video, some saying it was "poor" while others said it was out of time. I can acknowledge this problem myself after reading the feedback; while editing, it can be quite difficult to tell if it's in sync or not, after you've been watching the same clip about 30 times. There were also some points where I found I didn't have the right clip that I needed; something I had forgotten to film or hadn't written onto the script. This was a problem for me, so I chose to either use non-lipsyncing clips for those parts, or to change others in which the lip syncing looked similar enough to the words. Another dislike about the video was how it was very jumpy - while the jumpiness was intentional, I can understand why that would be off-putting to a lot of people and consider in future using less shorter clips.

5. What did you think was the message behind the video?

I asked this question because I figured that if I got an answer which showed clear understanding of the narrative in the video, then I had succeeded in that part. I got a response of 9/10 people understanding the storyline of the music video and I consider that to be a success. I was worried about if the message would really get across to the audience through the video because I wasn't sure if I had made it clear enough. I think by adding the scene which showed the projection of the word "liar" it helped the audience to connect the dots.

6. What part of the video was most memorable?

I got a few different responses to this. A couple of responses talked about the bathroom scene with Leah throwing up, a scene that proved effective in capturing the attention of the audience (and slightly disgusting them). I'm incredibly happy with how that scene came out as it seemed to be almost impossible as I was planning out how to do the video. Other responses mentioned the scenes with the alien in, her makeup having made a large impression on the audience. 

7. How can I improve the video?

There were two responses to this: 1. Make sure the lipsyncing is in time and 2. Include what happened in the girl's past for her to be haunted by this guilt. I most definitely agree with number 1 and think that if I had had more time and preparation then I could have improved it, but I had to make do with the time that I had and the clips that I had. For number 2, while I can recognise the curiosity of the audience at knowing what she did for her to be haunted by guilt, I also think that by deliberately not showing what happened it allows the audience to have an open mind about the girl, as they are unable to judge her when they aren't aware of her wrongdoings. I also think it adds to the strange and sinister look of the video, by not adding a reason for her being haunted. I can understand why the backstory would be included and maybe if the song had been longer I could have added that in. 

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

I filmed my music video on a Nikon DSLR, which wasn't a camera I had specifically used before, but I have used some like it. I found it easy to use with the experience I've had with other cameras, although making sure I got the shot fully in focus was my main concern. 

When it came to my ancillary text, I used the camera to take a few photos of the actors for use on the digipak, but in the end I only used one of those photos. I couldn't find any others that I felt fit well with the digipak and decided to take screenshots from my music video instead and edit them so they looked like different images. 

I used Photoshop for all editing of photos and screenshots as I'm very familiar with the program and find it easiest to use. 

      For the front cover of my digipak, I used Photoshop to make the image. I took one of the photos I had taken and then selected the people in the image and turned them around. I used a few different layers to get the effect and made some of the layers transparent.

I used Blogger as a place to show all my ideas and developments in research and planning of my music video and later on to post to final products. I found the site easy and simple to use as I had experience using it at AS level. It was also a helpful place for me to note down the things I still needed to do before I could move onto the next task. 

      I also used Adobe Premiere 13 for editing my video. At first I struggled with learning how to use the program as I haven't got a lot of experience when it comes to editing footage; however, I found that by changing the settings on the program I found a much easier and detailed way for me to edit my footage how I wanted. I continued to run into the problem of the audio footage moving around or getting deleted, but was able to fix it by putting my videos on a different row and replacing missing audio. I feel much more comfortable with the idea of editing now and I have found it has helped my skills develop in this area.

YouTube and Vimeo were both helpful in the researching area for my music video as it allowed me to note down the conventions of professionally made music video and helped me to come up with ideas for my own. I found that YouTube offered a wider range of videos for me to watch and even gave me an insight into the music videos made by other students my age. 

Digipak Design: What I Imagined VS What I Produced

Finished Magazine Advert For Album

Finished Digipak Design

Finished Music Video - 'Lies'