Evaluation

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
- Planning/Research - When beginning the project the main form of familiarising myself with making a music video would of been to research previous ones. I took several from youtube and looked at the several elements that became familiar throughout all of them.
Also to show planning and that our idea was moving foward was use of the programme Animato which put together our storyboard and music to show the development of our idea. To create an audience profile for my artist I found it easier to do this on the interent programme Prezi, it felt like it was a simple and more interesting artist to show someone else what my artist was about.

Construction - A main factor of editing together the music video was Final Cut Pro, it was also a time for all of us to have a go at editing and putting toegther the final stages of the video. Before the editing process I used other media technologies such as using interent website Youtube to provide our music to lipsync to as it provided the words when anyone was struggling to remember words, or loose where they were. Alongside the video the construction of the digipak and poster was all done on Photoshop, it allowed me to use many effects and just experiment with different techniques, text and images.

Evaluation

3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

- Audience feedback is what made us change our complete idea for the better and re-shoot our whole sequence again. Even before posting it on youtube we got our class, teacher and other people from around the school to watch our footage so far. There was mixed responses, but a main factor that was bought up was the fact that our performance from our performer was not believable as the image we wanted to portray. There was nothing we could do to change this through the stages of editing, it was only something that could be changed through a re-shoot. Of course we all didn't want to have to go through all the filming again, as we had spent so long doing it before but the new footage came across so much easier and more understanding to the audience that it made such a vast improvement to our outcome. Using a more simple idea really made me realise that they work more effectively in the way that our audience is more interested as they can clearly understand our concept. To film this new footage we came up with the idea of using a sleepover scene and still the performance scene in the costume cupboard. When choosing a loaction for the shoot, we couldnt agree on a place to shoot so I had to putfoward my house and we shot there, another critcism was the use of different situations/shots. Whilst I filmed the others I looked at different elements including pillow fight, getting ready, dancing/messing about and then falling onto the bed at the end to signal the end of the evening/video. The main criticism was there wasn't enough shots or they were too long. We looked into this by chopping together bits of the performance and the sleepover scene to show the atmosphere in short bursts to the audience. After we looked at this, we looked into other ways of improving it, and after staying at school to edit we accomplished how to do a 3-way split screen which I feel really shows the sense of friendship and the group getting ready. I feel that the sleepover scene was a really big step up from our original idea, and shows much easier the sense of fun.
The only problem that I would improve if to come back to it was the criticism that the photo's on the digipak and poster need to be brighter to show more of Lucy Star's personality, I feel that the digipak and poster still does our artist justice but if to go back I would brighten these in a re-shoot just to push out her personality even further.

Evaluation

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

- When we were told to complete the entire package for the artist, including digipak and poster, I began research into other artists examples of these and a common theme was the idea that each item was linked in some through through font or image. This was something that I felt was important in completing the promotion package successfully.

With my digipak and poster I used the same font for both, when I discovered this font I thought it was really fitting to our artist as it incorporated the use of stars and it looks like a soft and where it looks quite messy, showing that Lucy Star isn't one that cares to much to be prim and proper. I chose to use the images on my digipak as this showed Lucy Star having fun, with her friends and on the back cover shows her just messing about and showing that she doesn't mind people seeing her in this way of just being herself. I feel my poster design was quite simple, but I felt this in a way portrayed how our artist just wants to get her message across and all the information is there and clear in one quick burst for the spectator. I feel the purple colour scheme shows the bright but subtle side of Lucy Star's personality, and the mismatch of colours on the digipak quote shows bursts of what Lucy Star is all about. Both pieces incorporate the 'Rough Trade' logo to show where Lucy Star belongs and the digipak includes all the copyright information and barcode. Overall I think all my pieces work well together as they link in some together, without this sort of link I feel that real life promotions would suffer as you need someone to recognise someone's style straightaway when viewing them.

Evaluation

1) In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- When first receiving the brief as a group we felt that pursuing the idea of Lucy Star and her persona as we all felt that it would be interesting to see how we all interpreted the idea and how we all visioned the final outcome. When we saw the choice of songs for the first time I think 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' stood out for us as there was so many interpretations that we all had, meaning that we had a lot of different ideas to work with.

When looking at music video's, there is a lot of elements that make up the finished piece. We first looked at Camera Work - Many video's show that you have to use a range of shots including long shots, close ups and mid shots. These were all used in different ways to identify with the location, to identify with other characters in the video and to show the emotions that the artist is portraying. The close ups also allow us to show a performance aspect and allow the audience to identify with the lyrics.

Mise-en-scene - This includes the props and the way in which we arrange the performer(s), lighting and the costume. When filming for the artist Lucy Star we had to make sure each location was well lit and that our performer was acting in way that they felt they could just let go and have fun. Another aspect we had to think about was also the way in which we show Lucy Star with her friends as we felt this was important within in the video as the girl 'having fun' needed to be shown alongside people she felt comfortable with and showing that she could also 'let go' around the company of other people.

Editing - A predominant feature in editing is the use of jump cuts. This allows an audience to see different aspects of a performer in such a short space of time. Another technique we used in the video was the use of split screens, I really liked the way they looked and although the one of Lucy Star dancing may seem random when it pops up, I think it really works well as it shows her as a quirky character just letting go.

When looking at the the theory of Andrew Goodwin, we see it says that we are made to look upon women in a voyeuristic way, but purposely we have not included that notion of 'looking' within the video for Lucy Star as our artist is not someone to be looked upon in that way. We wanted her to come across in a way which just shows her being herself. In the video we do show some different close-ups of our artist as we wanted the audience to identify with Lucy and her quirky persona that she has.

I think that within our music video we have chosen to go against some traditional video conventions as we felt our artist was not the kind who should be looked at in a voyeuristic way by men, but then again allow the spectator to get to know Lucy Star. From our brief I feel we have taken a 'softer' approach the image of Lucy Star, as we have shown her in a more feminine light, but at the same time have kept her priorities of just being shown to be having fun and enjoying life, not caring what others think and enjoying time with her friends. We were also advised to make sure the first line of the song was performed in the video, I found this was very important as its the first time you are introduced to the artist, and as a spectator you want to interact with the artist straight away.

Finished Music Video!

Final Poster Design!

Here is my final poster design, I felt this was the piece I struggled with most as I just found it difficult where to place pictures, text etc. I felt the designs that I had previously tried before had to much in the frame and I felt I needed to simplify it. Overall I am happy with the design, but now I feel that I could have spent a bit more time focused on the Digipak and poster as well as the actual video. But I do feel this simpler design would jump out to audience over a more 'busy' design as all the information is given to them with a quick glance at the poster.

Final Digipak Design!

Here is my completed Digipak design, I feel that the photo's capture Lucy Star's personality and the sense of being in an atmosphere that is friend orientated. If I could go back and create the Digipak again, I would look at brightening the photo's by using more light in the room where we did the photoshoot and just think of ways of how to push Lucy Star's personality through even more in the Digipak design. But, overall I am really happy with the Digipak design with all the different shots of the photographs that I have chosen to use, and the way in coincides with the poster theme and main picture.