Evaluation

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

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Our music video for ‘The Aquatic Escape – Gryphen Ford’ was inspired and influenced by a variety of different existing media products and musical outlets, and contains various notable themes. First of all, it appears to use the conventional form of a narrative as the character/artist is seen partaking in some sort of journey and travelling throughout. This narrative form is seen in numerous existing music videos and plays an important part in conveying the story of many artist’s/band’s music. However, our video subverts this clear narrative convention by containing a sense of enigma as it isn’t clear throughout where the character is going or what his journey is for; leaving the audience in suspense of where the character will end up and what the climax of the video will be.  

Small Bump - Ed Sheeran

            The idea of a journey taking place throughout the video could be compared to and is similar to the aesthetics of ‘Small Bump – Ed Sheeran’.  This video features the artist sitting and performing on a boat which is travelling along a canal. The idea that he is travelling along as he plays the song is similar to the idea expressed in our video, however this video does not necessarily tell a ‘story’ as such and is not a narrative. It is primarily focused on a single still mid-shot of Ed playing on the boat, but occasionally cuts to long-shots of the path alongside the canal showing the public and how they do not react. It was these shots that inspired us to use a similar theme in our product; showing the public passing by the artist/character without a care, thus depicting him as alone and lost.

The Girl - City and Colour

Another comparison that could be made is that with the video of ‘The Girl – City and Colour’, in which the introductory shot is the artist sitting on a stool under a bridge. The juxtaposition of home furniture with natural surroundings appealed to us and seemed appropriate for conveying the themes we had expressed interest in (indie/humble character, solitude). We took this further by using a bright blue inflatable chair, making the juxtaposition even clearer and further expressing the characters distance from other people and his surroundings.
The final climax of our video could be compared with that of Ed Sheeran's 'A-Team', as this video contains a similar 'shock factor' at the end. The video revolves around the theme of a prostitute's daily routine and features her taking drugs and supposedly dying in the final scene. This is similar to the scene in our video of our main character walking into the sea and ending his as the climax, which is unexpected and fairly shocking to the audience.

We also used a 'sun-glare' technique in our video, as this is a common convention of 'indie' style music videos and conveys more of the naturalistic mood we were trying to put across. An example can be seen in the video for 'Summer in the City' by Mikill Pane, who is also an indie/alternative artist.

A screenshot of a sun-glare used in our video.

A similar 'indie' style sun-glare in Mikill Pane's video.

            

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

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Our main product and our ancillary products are effective together in that they retain themes as a multi-platform product. We stuck to a rigid ‘indie’ and ‘humble’ theme throughout the creation of our products, making sure everything we designed and produced was recognisable as single parts of one whole product. We used an old-style ‘ 1980s’ filter throughout the music video to keep with the indie theme, and we then applied this to the rest of our products; making sure the audience could link our CD/DVD cover and advert back to the video.

            With regards to mise-en-scene, we also ensured that this remained consistent throughout our products. We used the same costume in all the promotional shots taken of the artist, allowing the audience members to recognise this costume and then relate to and link the character in all our platforms. We also made sure the lighting for each shot we used outside of the main product was similar or close to that used in the video, and that our locations were also recognisable and repeated throughout; almost making the audience feel ‘at home’ and giving them a sense of security due to the repetition. Obviously the props we used in the video were also the same ones used in the ancillary tasks, showing further continuity

Back and front of our CD cover

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

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New media technologies played a big part in the planning, research, production and editing of our media product; which would not have been possible without the knowledge and access to such technologies. First of all, the blog has played a large part in the planning stage as it has helped keep all our ideas, thoughts, inspiration and notes organised and enabled our whole group to keep on track and monitor each others and our own progress whilst creating our product. It has meant we can document every idea and look back chronologically to view development within the media process, which was a significant aid in the evaluation process too as we could see everything we had changed and improved from the original statement.

            To edit our raw video footage, we used Final Cut Pro. We made extensive use of the ‘RGB’ colour-editing tool to apply an old-style ‘indie’ filter to our footage; slightly increasing the red and purple hue and adding some desaturation to give it a ‘hazy’ feel. 

We used cross-dissolves for transitions between some shots to fade them into each other as the overlapped, creating seamless links between them and making them flow with the music. We also discovered and made use of the ‘opacity’ tool which is used for decreasing or increasing the transparency of each shot. This meant that we could overlap shots in the editing track and decrease ones opacity to make them appear as one shot. This came in extremely useful when we wanted to juxtapose the scene of the artist walking along the train station and the scene of the artist performing on the rocks. We then also used the ‘keyframe’ feature which allowed us to move the ‘walking’ scene above the line of the water in the ‘beach’ scene; combining with the overlapping shots, making the artist appear as those he is walking along the horizon.
In the planning stages of the process, we used a scanner as a useful tool for documenting and posting images of rough ideas, mind-maps and storyboards, which then allowed us to look back  and refer to them digitally.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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The internet played a big part in the research part of constructing our product, as we used websites such as YouTube to freely discover and access existing products to inspire and influence us. Search engines also allowed us to easily find existing posters, CD covers, DVD covers and digipaks for research into these products and for use for analysis.

            Our audience feedback was fortunately very positive, in that it reinforced our original ideas and let us know that we executed our original plan very well. From the original audience feedback the general consensus was that the idea conveyed a ‘peaceful’ and ‘fluid’ atmosphere and these feelings were also said to remain upon the audience viewing the final product. One original criticism was that we could possibly add more characters to the narrative to possibly give it a twist and make it more interesting. To cater to this, we used other members of the public as side-characters in our video, allowing a contrast or a comparison to be made between normal citizens and our humble and forlorn character/artist. This portrayed him as isolated and distant from the rest of the world.

These two shots were used as a technique for 'distancing' our character and conveying isolation within our music video.

 We justified not using other actual characters as we stated that this would take away from the theme of isolation that was important in the portrayal of the character. Our feedback was useful as it consisted of people within the age-group of our target audience, (14 – 20) and showed us that our final product was received well by this audience; indicating that our video appeals to the desired range of people.

Final Digipak design

This is the final design for our digipak. The images were photographed by us specifically for the ancillary products, and then edited using photoshop. We applied an 'rgb' filter to the images to keep a sense of continuity from the main product to the ancillary products, and we used similar locations for the images we took and those in the video.

Digipak Design

Front and back of our CD design

Inside sleeve of our CD design.

Media Product Advert - Final Design

We carried out a public survey to determine which advert design would be chosen for our product. We asked a range of people from different background within our target audience group. Here are the results:

Advert 1: 1 person
Advert 2: 8 people
Advert 3: 21 people

This is our final poster design for the release of 'Gryphen Ford - The Aquatic Escape'. We took influence from the existing posters we researched and used similar factors that were appropriate to our product. The white, simple font displays the artist's name very clearly at the top, with the name of the song release underneath. The date is displayed in a smaller font-size at the bottom which, in contrast, singles out the information and gives it more impact. We have used the image and font in this way as they both compliment each other; the font frames the picture nicely and brings the eye down to the middle of the poster to the image of the artist, followed then by the date. We also used a similar filter to that used in our music video, giving the poster a '1980s' feel that is popular within the 'Indie' culture. Using this filter throughout our media-product and it's associated products creates a sense of overall continuity, which will allow the target audience to recognise each part of the release campaign.

Advert research - Ghost Poet

This is a poster for a concert of Ghost Poet, another Indie/Hip-hop artist. The imagery and design is similar to the previous post, with the large white font and simple layout, including the distorted and edited image of the artist. Although this image is in the background, it is still the focal point of the poster and is recognised by the target audience. Again, filters have been used to distort and change the image which makes it more interesting to look at, and the stark white font over the top of this creates an effective contrast and allows the text and information to really stand out.

Advert research - James Blake

As we need to create a poster for our own media product, we researched and looked into designs for posters for existing media products.
This is a poster for two James Blake (an Indie artist) concert events. The poster features a large edited picture of the artist, around which the information and other text is displayed. The artist's name is displayed in a large, simple white font against a black background at the top and the other texts such as dates, locations and websites are located underneath the picture. This layout maximises impact of the artist on the audience and instantly shows them who the poster is associated with. The whole poster is heavily edited, filters and effects having been used to create an old-style and almost ancient look. This '1980s' filter works well because it appeals to his teenage-young adult (15-23) audience as 'old-school' and 'retro' cameras and photos are extremely fashionable in 'Indie' culture at the moment. All these elements come together to catch the eye and draw in members of the target audience, therefore encouraging them to attend these live concerts.

Media Product - Advert designs

Here are two possible designs for the advert/release campaign.

We used the same 'stark' bold white font in both of them, which stand out nicely against the background. We have also used a similar filter to our music video to create a sense of continuity throughout our media product. However, there are flaws in these designs which we will revise, such as font style and layout.

Final Video

This is our final product,

 The Aquatic Escape - Gryphen Ford

Advert/Album Analysis - Ed Sheeran '+'

This advert for the release of Ed Sheeran’s new Album ‘+’ is obviously very simple and clear. The construction of this advert is carefully thought out to appeal to the artists target audience and let them know about the album.

          Firstly, the colour scheme is extremely effective, as it uses a minimum amount of colours to ensure it appears simple but effective. The majority of the advert is made up of a distinctly bright orange, which at first glance is extremely eye catching and could be recognised anywhere. The colour is used as part of Ed’s ‘image’, and is a play on his hair colour. The fact that he has ginger hair is majorly exploited as a selling point and recognisable feature throughout his representation in various forms of media. For example at gigs, bright orange filters are used on the lighting to give the stage an orange glow, and catchy lyrics related to his hair are used in his songs. Also, a lot of the Ed Sheeran merchandise that his record label (Atlantic – Warner) sells is orange. This recurring colour scheme is used to allow fans of the artist to instantly know when something is related to Ed. The fact that the only other colours on the advert are black and white or ‘monochrome’ (and not any other distracting colours) means that a contrast can be created in order for the text to stand out, without detracting from the main colour and familiarity.

          The ‘type-writer’ style font is used to give off a simple and humble image, and has been slightly stylised and given ‘scruffy’ edges to make it appear almost hand-made and personal, as well as giving the impression that the artist is dedicated to his fan-base and appreciative. The text has been positioned from the centre down in order to leave a lot of empty orange space at the top so as not to take anything away from the image. The word ‘click’ is underlined to show the audience that they can click the word to buy the album, and adds an interactive element to the advert. Different fonts are used at the bottom for the retailers to enable the audience to recognise these brand/retail logos; however the same scruffy stylising is used to keep these logos within the theme and image of the advert. The text ‘Out now’ makes the audience aware of the albums availability, and the fact that the text ‘the no1 album’ has been used shows the sheer popularity of it, making it seem even more appealing by showing that a lot of people like it and bought it.

The image on the advert, which is the taken from the artwork on the album cover, simply depicts the face of the artist Ed Sheeran. Again, this picture of his face is constructed using only gradients of orange and white so as to stay strictly within the boundaries of the artist’s star image and the colour scheme of the advert/album. Ed’s face fades away in the orange of the background, which may have been done to create a sense of ambiguity and make him look dark and mysterious. This technique, combined with his ‘cheeky’ and partly alluring facial expression and the lighting on the image, makes the artist appear somewhat ‘sexy’ via non-verbal communication and this mysterious façade will be extremely appealing to the mass female proportion of his target audience.

          This image (which was a photo of the artist) has been edited in such a way that it looks almost hand-drawn and sketchy. Again this gives the cover a personal feel and makes it appear somewhat handmade; which could make the consumer feel special. The fact that the image has been taken in such a way that it appears as though the artist is actually looking directly at you also adds a personal feel, and again could make the consumer feel unique and allow them to relate to the image. No obvious make-up or costume has been used, and if it has then the editing has been used to mask this, making the artist appear fairly natural. This gives it a ‘humble’ look and specifically makes the artist not appear fake or ‘made-up’. Again fans can relate to this as it gives the impression that Ed Sheeran is just a normal human being.

Intro and Ending filming

Our initial concept for the beginning and ending of our music video was a lift to be used as a sort of metaphorical 'transport' or 'vehicle' which would envelope our artist/characters' journey. However upon arrival and review of our original location the lift we were using was much too small for the desired shot and the lighting was not at all right for the shot, meaning we had to abandon this and possibly look for a new location.

We are now looking back and re-thinking the start and finish of our video.

Star Image - Katy Perry

Californian pop-star Katy Perry’s image is very cleverly crafted to appeal to an extremely vast fan-base and target audience.

With regards to the general representation of Katy across many forms of media, it is clear that herself and her record label are presenting her as a ‘youthful’, ‘fun’, ‘bubbly’ and ‘sexy’ singer. Her sound is very commercial; therefore her image must reinforce this by appealing aesthetically to her audience. One of the main elements that attract people to Katy Perry is the fact that although she uses crazy, fun costumes, puts on extravagant shows and has an extremely commercial sound, she still comes across as natural and isn’t regarded as a ‘fake’ star; it is quite obvious that she is having fun and therefore fans want to have fun with her.

            Her recent music video, ‘California Gurls’, depicts this image perfectly and the aesthetic and themes from this video seem to carry across to all forms of media in which Perry is represented. The star construction is this video is very carefully put together to attract a large scope of her fans. The theme of the video is ‘Candyland’, using very bright colours, candy-related props, settings and costumes to set the scene. The video combines a clear narrative with performance, merging the two seamlessly into one; using obvious narrative shots and lip-syncing throughout. The idea is that ‘Candyfornia’, the make-believe setting of the video, is a board-game of which ‘Snoop-Dogg’ is the games master, controlling the players. Every other girl that has played Snoop has lost before and been trapped in the game, and the video follows Katy as she enters the game and attempts to free the girls and defeat Snoop-Dogg.

            The video seems to play on the themes of nostalgia, as a lot of recognisable classic childhood sweets can be seen, which allows the slightly older fans to relate. The bright colours and quirky characters, e.g. walking gummy bears and ginger-bread men, allow the younger generations to relate and become engrossed in the story. With regards to communicating to both genders, the video appeals to girls in the way that Katy’s image empowers females, as it shows her freeing her female friends and defeating the male antagonist. There is also a theme of voyeurism in the video, in the fact that Katy is represented to have a large amount of sex-appeal. Along with the other female characters in the video, she wears low cut tops, flawless makeup and tight and revealing costumes that show a lot of skin. There is one scene in the video where she is seen naked lying in ‘cotton candy’ clouds. This adds a ‘sexy’ side to the video, which brings all the elements of Katy’s image together and means that a very extensive audience will enjoy it.

            The song ‘California Gurls’ is a single from the album ‘Teenage Dream’, the artwork of which is the image of Katy Perry lying naked amongst cotton candy clouds. This obviously follows directly on from the image constructed in the music video, and again depicts the star’s persona as ‘fun, ‘quirky’ and ‘sexy’. The colour scheme, bright blues and pastel pinks, is used specifically to enhance this persona and show Katy in a positive, youthful way. The fact that the album cover is so simple is appealing because it appears fresh and un-cluttered, and may be an implication that the album is simply Katy, and isn’t fake and cluttered. 

            These themes and representations also continue onto Katy’s official website, which is bright and clean. It uses pastel pinks against black for contrast and to stand out and light, muted colours in the background for a ‘vintage’ feel, possibly hinting at the theme of ‘nostalgia’ again and appealing to older generations. A cartoon stylised image of Katy with blue hair is seen on a link at the side, which again reiterates her ‘quirky’ and youthful persona and appeals to a younger audience.

            When seeing Perry’s tour-diaries and interviews, it appears that she is a very fun, bubbly woman who is confident and enjoys what she does. She is seen constantly smiling, laughing or having a fun time. This genuine personality and likability is what really attracts her audience and is one of the main reasons she has such a large fan-base. Despite the make-up, wild wigs and costumes, slim body, sex-appeal and talent, the way she appears on stage and what the public see of her through various outlets is extremely appealing and compliments her style of up-beat pop perfectly. Obviously what the public does see is largely down to the record label and it is possible that some videos have been largely edited to only show specific appealing clips. However, some clips do show Katy swearing which is obviously not appropriate for all audiences; these clips do on the other hand, show Katy just being herself which is evidently appealing for older audiences.

            Her performances at concerts also have huge appeal, as she appears as a friend to whole audiences and seems to act very natural on-stage whilst still maintaining an almost flawless performance of dance and music. For example, as she steps from the stage to greet a fan at the front row of a concert on her tour, she says, “Woah, don’t freak out! I’m just a human!” Again this could be fairly dictated by the label, but these performances are a large part of what makes her so enjoyable.

Shot list

Extreme Close Up Shot - By using this shot consecutively,  prior to a Medium shot or Medium-Long shot, the artist can be shown in two different perspectives. For example, one shot can display not only the artist but also the inflatable chair and guitar, whereas the next could simply be the Extreme Close Up of the artists face. This giving the effect of continuity. This shot could also be used to show the artists lips whilst singing, potentially adding significance to the lyrics of the song.


Long Shot - A long shot can be used to show a location or scene in full. In this case no specific details will be focused upon and the artist will simply be seen to compliment his surroundings. 


Over The Shoulder Shot - This shot could be used to show the perspective or view of the artist himself. An example of such, is when the artist is observing a location himself, or walking. 


Medium Shot -  This shot enables the artist to be shown in full body, however the surrounding environment is not featured much. This could be used so that the audience can still read the lips of the artist as he is singing the lyrics however they can also see his body language and other relevant objects or parts of the location.

Production shots 3

Photos taken whilst filming 3 separate scenes at different locations on the third day of filming.

The ligting in this location was great, as it made for interesting shadows being cast on our character and created a naturalistic atmosphere.

We used this location to shoot from on side of the road to the other, in order to capture cars simple driving past as our character/artist played the song, showing further uncaring and nonchalance from the public.

We involved two extras here to again reiterate distance between the character and the public, as they show no interest in the artist and continue to talk as he plays.

This shot also worked well as it showed cars simply driving round the artist without caring. Showing him centred in the roundabout again brought in the themes of isolation and distance.