DRAFT Evaluation Question Two

How effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

When creating the video, digipak and magazine advert, I tried to make a clear link between them all, however the link is strongest between the digipak and magazine advert, as visually follow the same theme. The video, influenced by nature, means there is a link between the sunflower images and the flowers included in the video, however when looking at existing examples of these products, I found that artists such as Alt J and Julianne Barwick have released album artwork and posters, that only loosely resembles videos for songs that are featured on the album. I have followed this convention as I believe a particular location used in one video, shouldn’t dictate the whole image of the album or advert. The only link to the video I have used on both the digipak and magazine advert is the mention and listing of ‘Afternoon’ – the song title.

I have followed the same pattern on both the digipak and advert to create a unique brand for Rosa-Leigh. Although it may be similar to existing brands, the sunflowers, as a motif, is used as a background on the poster, triggering a link between the advert and the album cover, as that too uses the sunflower image. I have also used the swirl from the inside panel of the digipak, on the advert, to create another, more subtle, attempt at linking the two products. I have also chosen to use the same font displayed on the front and back panels of the digipak, on the magazine advert. ‘Never let go’ struck me as a very decorative and appealing font, giving the digipak a homemade feel because of its handwritten nature. The reason I wanted to choose, and later on, chose, a handwritten style text, was because I had ideas of making a homemade style video, such as those of Lana Del Rey’s, and I feel the handwritten text links to those elements of the video. The elements to which I am referring are, sections of footage where Rosa-Leigh talks, laughs and isn’t putting on a show for the cameras; she is just being herself. I think not only does this footage make her seem down to earth, but the homemade, handwritten link to the digipak creates a brand for the artist, of a sweet, nice and down to earth girl. The text in all three products is white, therefore banishing any dark connotations that black has, in exchange for a pure, clean colour that is associated with ‘good’. This then adds to the final image of a light-hearted video, digipak and advert as the text is easy to read, appealing and contains only good connotations, showing Rosa-Leigh in a good light.

The advert and digipak both contain the record label logo, to distinguish Rosa-Leigh’s brand and career. I chose Island Records as it is a well-known label who sign some of the most popular and successful bands in the industry. By using the logo on both products it makes it clear to the audience that Rosa-Leigh is an esteemed, up and coming, successful artist, as this record label is trusted for signing high quality artists. ‘Rosa-Leigh – A Beautiful Life’ has been made extremely visible on both ancillary products so there is no confusion as to who these products belong to and what they are promoting. Inspired by Lorde, Kate Rusby and PJ Harvey, I chose to create the advert and digipak without using an image of Rosa-Leigh. Not using an image of the artist and letting their name sell the album, instead of their looks, gives an impression of high status within the music industry, as it should be about the music, not their appearance. I believe the link between my digipak and magazine advert is strong, and reflects the natural scenery within the chosen footage, as well as the down to earth personality of Rosa-Leigh that we tried to convey within the video.

DRAFT Evaluation Question One

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

When looking at research and existing media products to plan my video, digipak and magazine advert, I paid close attention to the conventions and elements contained within each example. I then investigated the most interesting and applicable conventions to identify which were best to use in the creation of my products.

The research and planning for my digipak meant looking at existing products by a variety of artists to see what they both had in common, and what made them different and more appealing than others. To gain initial research I used a book from the Art department that covered designs within CD covers, and by extension, digipaks. There was a variety of different styles within the book, and I quickly decided I wanted to create a digipak with 4 panels, instead of 6 or 8; Erik Wennergren’s ‘Tales from the Earth’ was my main influence for this choice. His digipak contained images of nature and the artist – and although I didn’t use Rosa-Leigh on the cover of my digipak – I took the idea of holding a flower within cupped hands and developed that convention to suit the colour scheme and style of my digipak. His digipak was much neater than the ones with multiple panels and the links between each of the panels were clear and easy to see. After looking at other digipak examples such as Rihanna’s ‘Loud’ album and David Ramirez’ ‘American Soul’ I decided that I definitely wanted to include nature within my digipak, as it would also tie in with the theme of our video. I looked at around 100 album covers to achieve a broad range of conventions and ideas, many of which contained images of nature such as the ocean or trees, so I knew that creating a digipak using the theme of nature was plausible and looked good.

I began to look at albums by Peace and Splash and really liked the idea of a visible ‘sticker’ on the album cover to convey the title and artist name. I used the convention of a circular sticker, as speech bubbles or stars would have looked too childish and not professional enough for this style of digipak. I used the ‘sticker’ as a focal point for the album artwork, as all digipaks need something to entice the audience and give it a centre of focus. Because I chose to include nature on the font cover (and throughout the rest of my digipak) I decided not to include Rosa-Leigh on any of the panels. Many other artists do this such as Arctic Monkeys ‘AM’ and I decided to follow this convention in order to give the impression Rosa-Leigh was an esteemed artist and that buying the album for her name, not just for her looks was a credit to her work. I decided to use the same image on both the front and back of the digipak, taking ideas from Julianna Barwick’s, ‘The Magic Place, as the use of nature and similar images has also been used. When adding information to the digipak I adhered to generic conventions within what was written. I included the track listing, barcode and copyright information on the back panel, an image of hands holding a flower on the inside right panel and then production information on the inside left. I invented this information by studying albums by McFly and Lady GaGa as they are well-known artists. From these albums I made sure Producers, Writers, Vocalists and Musicians were all accounted for, just as they would be on a real digipak.

When creating my magazine advert I ensured there was a clear link between the theme, style and images used on both of the products. I looked at existing magazine adverts from bands and artists such as Mika and The Wombats and found there was a clear link between their album cover and digipak, through use of the same text, image and branding of their artist. Coldplay’s ‘Mylo Xyloto’ and Florence and the Machine’s ‘Lungs’ were my main sources of inspiration, and to generate ideas for my magazine advert I used conventions from theirs. Both adverts had used the same image that was featured on their album cover, so I decided to use the sunflower picture on my advert also. I followed the theme of Florence and the Machines, placing the title of my artist at the top of the page where it is most visible and having the rest of the text in the lower thirds of the magazine advert. I included a release date (‘Out Now’), the various platforms it could be bought on, the record label logo, a website address and featured songs, following the conventions of many digipaks who adhere in the same way. I also chose to adhere to the rule of thirds, something that was introduced to me in AS media studies, when creating our magazine front covers. I chose to place ‘Rosa-Leigh’ and ‘A beautiful life within the top third’, the spiral and 'new album’ in the middle third and the remainder of information within the last third. There is a clear link between the digipak and magazine advert to ensure that the brand is recognisable and professional, as well as representing the idea of nature explored within the video.

To gain ideas for the creation of our music video, we spent time looking at existing videos by bands we both liked such as Givers and Lana Del Rey. We both really liked ‘Noche Nada’ by Givers and wanted to create a video that followed roughly the same structure and ideas, however, once we had developed our ideas and conventions from other products, it became more of our own video, rather than a copy. When choosing what to put in our video we found a variety of conventions such as the use of nature, the use of intro text, experimenting with the focus within shots, and having the artist lip syncing. We ensured that the artist sang along in the video to adhere to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of performance and making the video look credible. We have created a star image in which the artist communicates the lyrics to the audience, by singing along and looking into the camera; breaking the fourth wall and creating a connection that entices the viewers, making her a storyteller. The voice of the singer is unique, creating a trademark for our artist, so she is recognisable and sets her apart from other artists. One of the conventions we could not find much evidence for was the use of bubbles. We only managed to find David Guetta’s ‘Where them girls at’, and even then the bubbles were CGI. Although we could not find any videos containing bubbles, I understand it does not mean there aren’t any. Therefore, by using bubbles we are developing the conventions used in David Guetta’s video and filming with real bubbles, instead of CGI. Another convention we have developed is using various locations and outfits within our video, instead of keeping the continuity used in most existing products. We took the idea from Lucy Rose’s ‘Middle of the bed’ and developed it to suit the genre and style of our video, choosing exterior locations and summery outfits to keep the light-hearted theme within our product. The styling was influenced by artists and bands such as HAIM, Daughter and Lana Del Rey and was something we ensured was appropriate when filming our music video.

Initial Feedback for our Music Video

Draft Feedback

We asked 25 people in our age group to fill in our short questionnaire about our draft music videos. We gave them the option of giving us feedback for the first and second draft to get a wide range of opinions and feedback. The majority of people surveyed liked our video and recognised the effort that went into producing the video, however, there were a few people who weren't part of the genre that the music video was aimed at, therefore, they didn't like the video as much.

We got lots of positive feedback about several elements of the video including the use of nature, the styling of the artist, the use of bubbles, the happy atmosphere of the video and the different effects. We acknowledge that not everyone shared these opinions however the general consensus was that these elements worked well in the video.

Comments such as "Maybe less outfit changes" have been accounted for in our research and planning as that is the style of music video we chose to create, the majority of people found her styling was interesting and visually exciting. "The mirror shots don't work" was another comment used by a few people and we feel justified in using those effects as it creates a psychedelic feel that matches the song.

The audience noticed backgrounds that we wished to change, showing that the improvements made in our second draft were necessary and suited the video. We feel it is important to gain feedback from our target audience in order to see what effect our video has on them and to gage whether or not our video is successful.

Music Video - SECOND DRAFT

We have changed the shots that we planned to in order to create this draft and we are happy with the outcome. We managed to get the filming we needed done, and the weather stayed sunny and dry. We spent a few hours editing and ensuring the shots were in time with the music.

Re-shooting

Today we re-filmed several shots within our music video and found that we could film them all within the same location, just in different positions. We filmed at Rosa-Leigh's house, in her front, side and back garden, using carefully selected framing and mise en scene to ensure there was nothing in the shots that would compromise the quality of the video. The weather, even though cold, stayed dry and sunny, therefore we were able to shoot. Because of the cold however we had to increase the pace of filming and try to film in as few takes as possible, because Rosa-Leigh was cold due to having to wear summery outfits. 

We managed to film all of the shots that we decided to re-shoot and we believe we have captured them and they adhere to the quality and theme of our music video. 
 

We plan to edit at the beginning of next week, so if further improvements to either editing or production are needed, we have over a week to complete them. 

Filming Schedule (2)

As we feel it is important to plan when and where we are filming our video, we have created another Filming Schedule for the re-shoots we have to film. We have chosen locations that co-inside with the theme of our video, however we are aware that if they don't look good on camera, we can use various other locations to achieve the same effect. It is important we do not choose a location with 'suburban' mise en scene, such as the fence that was included in our first draft. 

We have looked at the weather forecast as we understand that because it is winter our opportunities to film may be limited and we have decided to film on Friday because the forecast is sunny from 9:00-2:00. We plan to use periods 2, 3 and 4 to film, however we have also planned for it running into lunch if it rains or is too cloudy to film. 

Friday 15th November: 

• 2 x Shots in Rosa-Leigh's side garden 
• 3 x Shots in exterior locations, possibly a different position in Rosa-Leigh's garden, replacing the attic shots 
• Re-shoot the replacement shot to her lying down, as bikes feature in the background 
• 2 x Shots in another location, possibly George's garden

We will ensure that several outfits are brought to the shoot, and when filming at Rosa-Leigh's house we can style her easily. 

How to improve our Video

 

 

This screenshot has been taken from the mark scheme and will help us to distinguish what we need to do in order to make our video a level 4.

We are currently at a high level 3/ low level 4 and we wish to push our grade up even futher to get the highest mark possible.

Based on Mr Ford's feedback we know what we have to change, and we can judge that feedback against the mark scheme to see which aspects need improving.

 

We think we have achieved holding a shot steady where approprite as we used a tripod for the shots we knew needed to be steady, and then panning for the more up-beat nature shots.

 

However, we need to improve framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate. Several shots need improving because of things that appeared on the camera that we were not aware of when filming, such as a changing of set in the attic shots, and concrete blocks in the shots where a fence in used; this also reflected in the feedback we recieved.

 

This then links to selecting mise en scene, including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting as the attic shots and shots that included a fence are not up to the high standard we wish to achieve. In order to achieve higher marks we will re-shoot this footage with more suitable location and setting within the scene. We plan to film the attic shots in an exterior location to match the rest of the video, and we will ensure there are no fences that occur within our framing of the scene. We plan to change a few outits also to accomodate for the cold weather, however the fabrics will still look summery to tie in with our genre and theme of video.

 

When creating our final version we will ensure that sounds with images and editing is appropriate for the task. We will ensure that the lip syncing is perfect and there is no delay or increased speed of singing to make our video look professional and to make it a level 4.