Wednesday 16 March 2016
Thursday 10 March 2016
Evaluation - Q1
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My production brief for my Advanced Portfolio was to make a music video, with two ancillary texts to accompany with it. The ancillary texts were a magazine advert and a digipak. A music video is a short film that is produced for promotional and artistic purposes. The purposes for a music video is to make an artist's song visually more understanding for their audience, market and promote further the artist and also they are made solely for the audiences entertainment. My music video is for the song Wings by Birdy, who is an indie artist, therefore my chosen genre is indie.
A convention for the indie genre is the use of filters. Filters are usually used in indie music videos to portrays memories. An example of this would be in Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness video, where a reddish sepia vintage filter is used to portray the good memories of her and her lovers relationship. The use of filters are conventional to the indie genre as they illustrate that a certain scene is from the past, and indie artists usually sing about their personal life experiences, especially to do with love. The relationship this creates with the target audience, who are generally young female teens/adults, is one that is relatable through the use of the love theme. This is because artists and the audience are usually the similar age, therefore are likely to experience similar experiences within their lives, with that said the audience and artist relate to each other through the filters that convey the memories, as they may empathise with whats going on.
Another convention of the indie genre, is the use of having a narrative based music video. A narrative is simply a story that is seen within the video. An example of this is in Gabrielle Aplin's video for the song Panic Cord, and the narrative is about her relationship with her partner being boring to her and that she is confused about whether she's to blame and doesn't know what to do. The music video showcases this through the narrative by showing scenes of happiness contrasting the bad sides of the relationship, which also helps convey her boredom within the relationship. This follows Goodwin's theory of lyrics and visuals matching. To conclude, narratives are conventional to the indie genre because they visually portray the lyrics of the songs, which gives the audience a better understanding of what the song is about.
Lastly, a convention within the indie genre is the use of mise en scene, costume. Costume in an indie music video usually consists with ordinary clothing. For example, in Gabrielle Aplin's Panic Cord video, she is seen wearing ordinary, casual clothing. The purpose of this is to showcase the artist as 'normal' to their audience, which makes them relatable to them. Also by having ordinary 'everyday' clothing, it portrays realism within the video which is conventional to the indie genre as artists sing about their real experiences and not just to make a catchy pop song. Through this convention, it makes the narratives or concept look more real, therefore portraying a genuine picture of what the songs about.
There are many ways in which I have incorporated some of the conventions of the indie genre in my own music video. Firstly, the use of having a narrative is apparent in my video. The narrative is about the artist reminiscing about her complicated with her female partner; whom doesn't want the relationship to be out in the open. My group and I decided to follow the convention of having a narrative in our video, so that we could interpret the lyrics of Birdy's song visually and showcase a chapter of our artist's life. The use of having a narrative in our music video is conventional to the indie genre because it matches lyrics of the song and gives the audience a better understanding of the artists life.
The next convention that I followed was the use of natural, realistic settings. The locations within my music video were; Camden Market, field, forest and bedroom. As these settings were all real, this connoted our video to be genuine, realistic and relatable for the audience. By having real life settings this conveys realism which is conventional to the indie genre. Having realistic locations in the video makes the narrative look more authentic and relatable to the audience as they can relate to the settings seen. For example, scenes such as market and fireworks scene were filmed in a public place so there were members of the public included in our footage. This was beneficial for our video as it made the narrative look like it was real life, also matching the love theme of the video as it portrayed the relationship in real situations therefore validating the portrayal of the narrative.
Furthermore, in my music video, I conformed the convention of using cinematography, handheld shot. A handheld shot is a shot that is captures without the use of a tripod and it creates unstable shots. An example of this shot followed in my music video, is when the artist and her partner are holding hands, swinging around in a field. As well as being shot handheld, it was also shot as a point of view shot, to portray the perspectives of the couple. This further connotes the realism portrayed within the video, because the handheld point of view shots are conventional as they show how it will really be like when doing the particular actions in the scene. Also the purpose of the cinematography was to put the audience into the characters shoes and empathise with them by seeing their facial expressions and body language through the shot. The use of this was to give the audience a better understanding of the dynamics of the relationship so that they could understand the narrative. This relates to the purpose of a music video, as it shows the story behind the lyrics and entertains the audience, therefore enhancing their engagement to the video and artist.
Another convention I followed was the use of editing style; filters. This is evident when the good and bad memories of the relationship are shown and I created this on Final Cut Pro X. The happy memories are bright and in an orange tint to connote the happiness that they are expressing, also I changed the brightness of the clips up by 10% and added the dreamy filter effect to make the frames look like flashbacks. For the negative aspects of the relationship scenes, I added the dreamy filter to convey that was a memory as it made it look cloudy and soft. I also added the filter, Cool Tones which is a cold blue/green tint, which gave the clips a gloomy cool feel to portray the darkness of the relationship. This is conventional because beaches artist's in their music video's tend to sing about personal experiences e.g relationships and through the filters, this helps illustrate the stories behind the lyrics so that the audience can visually relate to what they are singing about. Also, the use of filters help build a relationship with the audience because they help give an insight into the artist's life by conveying memories, therefore enabling the audience to emphasise with the artist, creating a relationship between the two.
In addition, I challenged the convention of a relationship in an indie music video which is usually a heterosexual relationship, by incorporating a homosexual female relationship in the narrative of the music video. This is evident throughout the music video as there is scenes that convey the same sex couple being mildly intimate and also arguing. I decided to challenge the convention of a relationship and include a homosexual relationship because I believe it portrays realism of today's modern society, which is more accepting to homosexuality whereas 10 years ago it wouldn't be. Therefore, by including the same sex couple in the narrative, this conveys realism which is conventional to the indie genre because it is seen as the norm in today's society, which the audience can understand.
Last but not least, a convention that I conformed was the use of casual clothing through the micro element, mise en scene; costume. I was inspired to incorporate casual clothing in my music video from Gabrielle Aplin's music video 'Panic Cord' as she too wore casual clothing. As you can see in the screenshot, my artist is wearing a blue bomber jacket, black turtle neck and black jeans which are recognisable to the audience. The dark colours of the costume could connote the darkness of the relationship and the effect it has had on her negatively, which also suggests her bottling up her feelings but letting them go through her being alone in the isolated area in this particular scene. Therefore, enabling sympathy from the audiences towards her as they witness the out coming of the artist expressing her feelings, creating an engaging experience in result. Overall, the use of the ordinary clothing is conventional to the indie genre as it represents her as a like to the audience, which makes the artist seem relatable to the audience and helps build a relationship with the two.
I think I was successful in illustrating and incorporating the conventions of the indie genre, as I followed key aspects of the genre by adapting them into my own music video. This is because I made sure it was clear and showcases the realism aspect for the target audience of 17-25 year olds, so that they can relate to what's going on in the video throughout.
My production brief for my Advanced Portfolio was to make a music video, with two ancillary texts to accompany with it. The ancillary texts were a magazine advert and a digipak. A music video is a short film that is produced for promotional and artistic purposes. The purposes for a music video is to make an artist's song visually more understanding for their audience, market and promote further the artist and also they are made solely for the audiences entertainment. My music video is for the song Wings by Birdy, who is an indie artist, therefore my chosen genre is indie.
Lastly, a convention within the indie genre is the use of mise en scene, costume. Costume in an indie music video usually consists with ordinary clothing. For example, in Gabrielle Aplin's Panic Cord video, she is seen wearing ordinary, casual clothing. The purpose of this is to showcase the artist as 'normal' to their audience, which makes them relatable to them. Also by having ordinary 'everyday' clothing, it portrays realism within the video which is conventional to the indie genre as artists sing about their real experiences and not just to make a catchy pop song. Through this convention, it makes the narratives or concept look more real, therefore portraying a genuine picture of what the songs about.
The next convention that I followed was the use of natural, realistic settings. The locations within my music video were; Camden Market, field, forest and bedroom. As these settings were all real, this connoted our video to be genuine, realistic and relatable for the audience. By having real life settings this conveys realism which is conventional to the indie genre. Having realistic locations in the video makes the narrative look more authentic and relatable to the audience as they can relate to the settings seen. For example, scenes such as market and fireworks scene were filmed in a public place so there were members of the public included in our footage. This was beneficial for our video as it made the narrative look like it was real life, also matching the love theme of the video as it portrayed the relationship in real situations therefore validating the portrayal of the narrative. 
Another convention I followed was the use of editing style; filters. This is evident when the good and bad memories of the relationship are shown and I created this on Final Cut Pro X. The happy memories are bright and in an orange tint to connote the happiness that they are expressing, also I changed the brightness of the clips up by 10% and added the dreamy filter effect to make the frames look like flashbacks. For the negative aspects of the relationship scenes, I added the dreamy filter to convey that was a memory as it made it look cloudy and soft. I also added the filter, Cool Tones which is a cold blue/green tint, which gave the clips a gloomy cool feel to portray the darkness of the relationship. This is conventional because beaches artist's in their music video's tend to sing about personal experiences e.g relationships and through the filters, this helps illustrate the stories behind the lyrics so that the audience can visually relate to what they are singing about. Also, the use of filters help build a relationship with the audience because they help give an insight into the artist's life by conveying memories, therefore enabling the audience to emphasise with the artist, creating a relationship between the two. 
Last but not least, a convention that I conformed was the use of casual clothing through the micro element, mise en scene; costume. I was inspired to incorporate casual clothing in my music video from Gabrielle Aplin's music video 'Panic Cord' as she too wore casual clothing. As you can see in the screenshot, my artist is wearing a blue bomber jacket, black turtle neck and black jeans which are recognisable to the audience. The dark colours of the costume could connote the darkness of the relationship and the effect it has had on her negatively, which also suggests her bottling up her feelings but letting them go through her being alone in the isolated area in this particular scene. Therefore, enabling sympathy from the audiences towards her as they witness the out coming of the artist expressing her feelings, creating an engaging experience in result. Overall, the use of the ordinary clothing is conventional to the indie genre as it represents her as a like to the audience, which makes the artist seem relatable to the audience and helps build a relationship with the two. I think I was successful in illustrating and incorporating the conventions of the indie genre, as I followed key aspects of the genre by adapting them into my own music video. This is because I made sure it was clear and showcases the realism aspect for the target audience of 17-25 year olds, so that they can relate to what's going on in the video throughout.
Friday 12 February 2016
Thursday 11 February 2016
Wednesday 10 February 2016
Saturday 9 January 2016
Rough Cut - Miss Miller
Audience feedback is very important for a production, in my case a music video as it allows the group to analyse the strengths and weaknesses within our music video. Also the feedback from our target audience (17-25 year olds) will give us an opportunity to iron out all the flaws and problems with our production, which will help us decide on the changes and improvements that will need to occur when finalising the final cut of our music video. A rough cut for a media production is essential in the production as it gives the producers an insight of what the final outcome will look like. Also, the rough cut highlights what needs to be done or changed, but also allows feedback from audiences, so that there could be improvements made to make our video successful. My rough cut is for my group's music video; Wings by Sharna Rae.
Youtube link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-is9Dan8Yo
The feedback given to our rough cut will help benefit our production and the music industry because it gives us an opportunity to show our target audience what we have made so far and allow us to gain criticism so that we make changes to it, to make it conventional for the target audience. Also, if we were in the music industry, the rough cut would give the production team a rough idea on what the final outcome would look like, and also the professionals will decide on what improvements need to be made as well as promote the artist further through the successful final cut, which will increase the sales and make them gain a higher profit for the media conglomerate (Record Label).
The ways in which we received our feedback was from youtube and in class. The video uploading site;youtube, is the online platform where we uploaded our music video's rough cut. This was because it includes a comment section, where our audiences/viewers can comment their feedback whether good or criticisms underneath our video. The other way we received feedback for our rough cut was in class, where we had to go around to each groups Mac and evaluate their music video so far, therefore we got feedback from our peers. Furthermore, we received feedback from our teachers, who watched our rough cut on a hard drive, then gave us key points on what they liked and what we needed to get a higher grade. Lastly, we gained feedback from 'Boy Better Know' rappers in our lesson, where they came in and watched our music video to see what we have done so far.
The feedback we received from the rappers was that the video was good, and the narrative was understood clearly, so they knew what the artist was singing about. Also, they said that the relationship was believable and the happy memories were clearly conveyed, and that the locations we chose for singing e.g field were authentic and good. As we showed them our video when it was barely finished, we told them about what we were planning on adding into our video and when we mentioned we were planning on having dancers in our video, this was alarming for them. The criticism that we received after revealing that we wanted dancers in our video to convey the relationship more in the performance side, they both rejected the idea and told us to keep the video more about the relationship and only about the couple. This was very insightful and we did take into account their criticisms by not having dancers within our music video and just have the narrative and artist singing portray the complicated relationship.
Our next feedback was from our peers in our media class, who we showed our video to and asked for positives and criticism. This was beneficial because our class includes the ages 17/18 who are in the our target audience range 17-25, which means that their opinions on our music video are representative to what the target audience would expect in an indie video. The feedback we received was that our narrative was clear and the shots in the fireworks scene were creative. However, some said that the shots of the artist opening the memory box were a bit grainy. We asked our teacher if she thought the shots were grainy, and she stated that the little grain is conventional to the indie genre, so we decided to keep the memory box scenes the same.
From our youtube comments there were comments that were positive. Firstly this person commented positively about how the "story fitted the song really well", therefore implying that we used Goodwin's theory of visuals matching lyrics well. This was nice to know as we wanted to make sure the visuals and song matched well so that the audience know the hidden meanings behind it and follow the narrative well, therefore engaging their attention. However, the negative feedback we received from Lorez was that the shot of the artist's girlfriend pushing her away whilst being on the phone was unclear and random to be placed there, making it quite confusing as in the video the audience just saw happy scenes of them in the same location and costume. The reason to why we added that particular scene there, was because we wanted show the contrast of the good and bad sides of the relationship within that moment. However, since it was confusing in that specific place we decided to take on board the feedback and replace the footage with another so that it doesn't confuse the audience. We could understand what the comment meant by it being confusing because they see the couple being happy in the same scene, and in that small moment it was just too random and unclear. So instead we discussed this and decided to shoot another scene to show the relationship in a negative light with different mise en scene.
Our next comment was from Jamie and it was very insightful and helpful. His positive feedback was that we did " a great job syncing the video with the lyrics" and that the artist showed a "great performance", as well as our use of cinematography was excellent. We were pleased with this comment cause again it showed that we did incorporate Goodwin's theory well as more than one person have said that we did good in matching the visuals to the lyrics. Therefore, making us feel proud in actually included some of our research into our music video. Also, the fact that he mentioned our use of cinematography was nice to know as well, because this means that our shots were not standard and quite creative therefore not boring for the audience to watch. However, the only criticism we got from Jamie was that the use of speeding some of the clips was slightly overused. This was interesting to know as we did think the different paces of the shots were good in showing how time flies. But we did understand where Jamie was coming from and did discuss what we were going to do from this feedback.
Our next feedback was from Zaina who gave us a fully detailed explanation on what went well and what to do better. The positives she said about our rough cut was that we used "amazing camera shots" especially the pull focus clips. Also she stated how we used good mise en scene, through setting and costume. She said how the costumes in our music video linked with the fashion that is conventional to the indie genre. Furthermore she added how the rewinded time lapse at the beginning was "Excellent" because it gave the audience a snapshot of what to expect in the music video without giving too much away, therefor making her want to see what happened during the couple's relationship. We were chuffed by this feedback as it illustrates how we carefully considered what would be conventional to the indie genre e.g costumes and settings, which shows were on the right track on making an overall conventional successful indie music video. The criticism that we received from Zaina was that the video did not have much negative aspects of the relationship, therefore lacking the understanding of the narrative that we want to portray which is to show the complicated relationship. Also, she then when to add how the acting of the artists partner could improve, as she states there were some times where she looked awkward or didn't express enough emotion. We took this on board and discussed with each other whether to take upon her suggestion of re filming them bits, so that we show the narrative successfully and clearly more.
The main changes that we will make to our music video based on the comments we received are to; show more negative aspects of the relationship so that the audience understand the narrative were trying to showcase better, re consider our use of editing specifically the fast paced shots so that it is not over used, another is to make the music video all about the couple and not have extras within our video as we initially planned to and finally an action we need to do is to actually finish filming the music video as there were some gaps in our rough cut with no footage.
Youtube link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-is9Dan8Yo
The feedback given to our rough cut will help benefit our production and the music industry because it gives us an opportunity to show our target audience what we have made so far and allow us to gain criticism so that we make changes to it, to make it conventional for the target audience. Also, if we were in the music industry, the rough cut would give the production team a rough idea on what the final outcome would look like, and also the professionals will decide on what improvements need to be made as well as promote the artist further through the successful final cut, which will increase the sales and make them gain a higher profit for the media conglomerate (Record Label).
The ways in which we received our feedback was from youtube and in class. The video uploading site;youtube, is the online platform where we uploaded our music video's rough cut. This was because it includes a comment section, where our audiences/viewers can comment their feedback whether good or criticisms underneath our video. The other way we received feedback for our rough cut was in class, where we had to go around to each groups Mac and evaluate their music video so far, therefore we got feedback from our peers. Furthermore, we received feedback from our teachers, who watched our rough cut on a hard drive, then gave us key points on what they liked and what we needed to get a higher grade. Lastly, we gained feedback from 'Boy Better Know' rappers in our lesson, where they came in and watched our music video to see what we have done so far.
The feedback we received from the rappers was that the video was good, and the narrative was understood clearly, so they knew what the artist was singing about. Also, they said that the relationship was believable and the happy memories were clearly conveyed, and that the locations we chose for singing e.g field were authentic and good. As we showed them our video when it was barely finished, we told them about what we were planning on adding into our video and when we mentioned we were planning on having dancers in our video, this was alarming for them. The criticism that we received after revealing that we wanted dancers in our video to convey the relationship more in the performance side, they both rejected the idea and told us to keep the video more about the relationship and only about the couple. This was very insightful and we did take into account their criticisms by not having dancers within our music video and just have the narrative and artist singing portray the complicated relationship.
Our next feedback was from our peers in our media class, who we showed our video to and asked for positives and criticism. This was beneficial because our class includes the ages 17/18 who are in the our target audience range 17-25, which means that their opinions on our music video are representative to what the target audience would expect in an indie video. The feedback we received was that our narrative was clear and the shots in the fireworks scene were creative. However, some said that the shots of the artist opening the memory box were a bit grainy. We asked our teacher if she thought the shots were grainy, and she stated that the little grain is conventional to the indie genre, so we decided to keep the memory box scenes the same.
From our youtube comments there were comments that were positive. Firstly this person commented positively about how the "story fitted the song really well", therefore implying that we used Goodwin's theory of visuals matching lyrics well. This was nice to know as we wanted to make sure the visuals and song matched well so that the audience know the hidden meanings behind it and follow the narrative well, therefore engaging their attention. However, the negative feedback we received from Lorez was that the shot of the artist's girlfriend pushing her away whilst being on the phone was unclear and random to be placed there, making it quite confusing as in the video the audience just saw happy scenes of them in the same location and costume. The reason to why we added that particular scene there, was because we wanted show the contrast of the good and bad sides of the relationship within that moment. However, since it was confusing in that specific place we decided to take on board the feedback and replace the footage with another so that it doesn't confuse the audience. We could understand what the comment meant by it being confusing because they see the couple being happy in the same scene, and in that small moment it was just too random and unclear. So instead we discussed this and decided to shoot another scene to show the relationship in a negative light with different mise en scene. 
The main changes that we will make to our music video based on the comments we received are to; show more negative aspects of the relationship so that the audience understand the narrative were trying to showcase better, re consider our use of editing specifically the fast paced shots so that it is not over used, another is to make the music video all about the couple and not have extras within our video as we initially planned to and finally an action we need to do is to actually finish filming the music video as there were some gaps in our rough cut with no footage.
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