Media A2

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

My main media product is an r’n’b genre music video. To be able to produce the video in a professional way I carried out various researches in order to make it look as realistic as I could. For research I watched 5 music videos from the same genre and then analysed 3 of them. In conclusion to the three music videos I researched I found similarities between them. The videos all represent their artists in the same way by showing them with notions of voyeurism and representing the female artists to appeal sexy and powerful so that they grab audiences, particularly men, to want to watch more, which is typical for r'n'b female artists. This helped me show my artists through narrative & performance based conventions and also linking the lyrics of the song to the artist’s actions throughout the video. When planning to record the audio song to add to my music video, I decided to go against using a male and female singer as the original song has this. I used two female singers to challenge their original audio and to also be able to show that gender when singing a song doesn’t effect how the video is viewed.

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

I feel that the synergy displayed in my three media products are evident because the artists are shown in all of them which assists in them gaining recognition amongst audiences. I have used a logo throughout the CD cover and magazine advertisement to also gain recognition of the band name, similar to artists Prince and Rihanna. The font used on my CD cover and Magazine Advertisement are quite feminine as it is a female band, it makes the design look classic and professional, and also looks ageless. Throughout making my three media products I consciously made them link through a colour theme of black, white and red. I felt this helps bring them all together as people will see a clear similarity.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once all of my media products were finalised I carried out a presentation to a small group of media students. In this process I displayed my CD Cover, magazine advertisement and music video, and talked through my journey in producing them. I then gave out audience feedback forms for them to fill out whilst the presentation was taking place. When looking at the filled out forms, everyone had thought that my target audience of all genders from the age of 16 and over and who also like r’n’b music, fits the type of music video I have created. They also all said that there was a clear link in all of my products such as the colour scheme, logo and image style has a strong look. I asked what went well with the CD cover and magazine advertisement, and they answered colours, photography, logo, professional look, followed conventions of real CD and magazine advertisements and also they both linked with each other. When it came to answering about what could be improved with my products, only one person wrote that my CD advertisement could be more eye-catching. I feel this is correct and I could have improved it a little more. I would have liked some people to write some negative points about my products so that I could improve it to how the audience would like to view my products. But I have learned that my planning up to my final products was successful and the majority of the feedback I got from the audience was very positive, which is what I was aiming for.

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

During the making of my 3 media products, I used various media technologies. I used iMovie to create and edit my final music video. During this process I have come across many problems to do with my clips and editing. As this problem has persisted, this has made a big effect on being able to finish this product in time with the schedule, and being able to present it to an audience and gain feedback. I also used Garage Band to create the cover song used on the music video. I wasn’t familiar in using this programme but found it quite easy to adapt to. I had a few problems with recording and matching the clips tempo and pitch, which made the final song not as good as I hoped it to be as it doesn’t sound very professional. I felt this altered the professionalism and made the video not look and sound as realistic as I’d hoped. I used Photoshop and Pic Monkey to edit my CD cover and magazine advertisement. I found using Photoshop considerably difficult as I wasn’t used to using it and remembering how to use different tools was hard. But after finding these difficulties, I searched for help from various sources and was able to produce them on time. I used Pic Monkey more often as I had used the programme quite significantly and felt it gave a better finish to the media products.

Zu3D is an animation programme. I used this to create a clip I will add to my final music video as I thought it would be a unique thing to add. I have used this before and found it very easy to use, which helped me finish it entirely, in a quick amount of time. I also think this will make the video look more interesting as it’s not a common thing used in professional r’n’b music videos. I also used Blogger throughout the project. I have used this many times before so I haven't found many problems with using it this time round. Although I have added certain posts at the wrong time and am finding it difficult to change the post organisation around. Also I found some of my images and posts haven't loaded properly but I have been trying to find an alternative to make my blog look thorough.

Also during the making of my three media products I have used iTunes to add my cover song to my iMovie project. I used Zoom to record the artists singing and 2 different film cameras.

ACTORS

Myself
Olivia Brock

I have decided to use 2 female actors to feature in my music video because i feel it gives a better feminine power to the song. In the real production of the song 'Stay' By artist Rihanna, it features a male singer/actor and Rihanna herself. I felt going against there original product by using 2 females to show that audiences can receive the same reaction from the song.

LOCATION

City/river landscape

Woods

My choice of location depended on the genre of the song which was quite slow and emotional. I felt using an empty wood space would help to increase the intensity of emotion in the song. I also felt to use the city and river scenes to enhance the location of Bristol and to also show more to just one scene.

COSTUMES

Dress to impress- High heels, Shirts, dresses skirts etc. To make the artists look attractive for audiences especially for male majority. It also makes the female artists look powerful and in control because of how they flaunt and represent themselves in their genre.

PROPS