Making our Video...

Once we had finished filming all of our footage for our video, we then uploaded it to this programme, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 the software used to edit our video. This programme i believe was a new one to everyone therefore all of us were very interested in how it worked, and how we would use it to create our video.

This is the screen that we all came across when we first got into the programme, at first it looked very confusing and it took us a while to discover all of the buttons and what they mean. We attached our camcorder to the computer, allowing the video to upload onto the programme. This appearing in the top left hand corner. Once we loaded our video onto the screen it appeared at the bottom of the screen in one long chunk, this was all of our footage we took, we now needed to chop it up and start editing!

Here is a diagram i found which explains where everything goes. This is a preview of what the screen we are using on a daily basis looks like, although it looks very confusing, once we were taught what everythign was we soon got the hang of it!This is all that we used in order to create our video, edit and cut our film and put it together;

Conventions of Advertising

Conventions of Advertising...

There are many aspects needed to consider whilst creating and distributing a music video, and I have tried my best to research further and include these. The elements that are included for my coursework as a whole are the music video, a cd albumn cover, and a magazine advert. I have researched a lot about each of these individual things and collected information on each of them which i have used to help me create my own. Each of these put together create a synergistic campaign, which you see everyday advertising many different aspects of media development.
I have considered that there needs to be something specific that links each product together, except for the name of the product being 'Waking Up In Vegas', to make it more aware to the audience that each advertisement is part of the campaign. I thought we could use a particular colour scheme, or use the same font for the cd cover and te magazine advertisement, showing the audience it's relevance. I believe my product has a big enough target audience to become a success, and that each element used to advertise my product is used effectively and is successful in doing it's job.

Potential Cd Cover Photos

Above are two of our potential Cd Cover photgraphs that we took of our friend Ricole.
She is playing the lead role in our music video, and acting as the artist. We decided to change our ideas, as we originally wanted a photograph of all of thye characters together, although through our research we did earlier on, we decided that the majority of Cd covers tend to focus mainly on the artist alone.
I feel that it is important to show her alone also as it attracts more attention, the audience have one thing to focus on and are aware of who she is and what she represents. The original artist of the song Katy Perry is a very succesful woman and is presented alone on most of her albumns, we thought this was relevant for our cd cover.
We have a choice of two here that we are finding hard to chose between, they are very different from one another, each adopting two completely different poses.
The first one shows her standing up, leaning slighty to the left, with an arm on her hip and doing the 'Peace' sing with her fingers, adding attitude and character to the photograph. I like this photo as it is fun and i believe will attract an audience. I think the pose she is doing is different and portrays the theme of girls just having fun, and the stereotypical view of a 'Vegas' girl. However, i also really like the other photograph we took; Ricole is sitting down and is holding a lighter in between her legs, being the centre at the bottom of the photograph. This pose seems more simple, but i am pleased with it as it refelcts a 'bad girl' pose, the lighter suggests she is acting 'hard' and doesn't care or have a care for anything. She is looking up into the camera, from a low angle to a high angle, one of her eyebrows is slightly raised and she is smirking. I like this look a lot as it gives off a lot of character, it isn't drastic or busy it is just simple, yet the focus of her face acts as it is looking at the audience and will immediately attract their attention to her.
Both covers i feel will be a success if designed correctly, yet we will now try both, and see what one works best with the song choice!

Magazine Adverts

Above are a number of Magazine adverts for different products projected bythe media. I have looked at these as i tried to find a cd cover one but couldnt, therefore i continued to research ones for different products and look at the way in which they were presented in the magazine; looking at the page layout, fonts, and how the product itself is portrayed to the reader.

Each of the three adverts are different from one another, the loreal one focusing mainly on a close up of her face, the second featuring the series Ugly Betty more focused on the product itself and including quite a busy background also, and the third, focused on the actor in the film The Tudors, showing him sitting on the throne in a medium shot, with the product underneath.

I found it easier to think of ideas for my own final magazine advert that i will produce for my coursework through looking at these, as i have noticed there are lots of adverts all layd out differently on the page, attracting focus to their products.

I focused a lot on the different colours one ach advert, they way that they contrast from one another to create a bold and eye catching ad, and the way they also match to create an attractive colour scheme. Each advert attracts it's target audience individually and in a different way, the Loreal advert attracts attention through her face, she is close up to the camera and she is attractive therefore easy to look at, she is touching her hair suggesting the new hair dye is what she is advertising, the fact that she is famous also attracts attention and persuades the public to buy the product.

The Ugly Betty advert, is viewd in a different way, the page is full of colour and is busy, not being as dominent than the loreal advert, however eye catching still. As it is a christmas ad the colour scheme is white and red in particular, with orange pugs. THe picture of the dvd is in the middle of the page and the headign above says: ' Wishing you a very UGLY christmas' the use of the word ugly promotes the dvd; along with this the date of when it is released is in bold writing underneath.

The Tudors magazine advert immediately gives off the impression of being very dark and mysterious, the way he is sitting on the throne in the middle of the page, being centre of attention creates quite an eery look. The colours are golden and white, keeping it simple but effective, his facial expression attracts the audience as he is looking at them. The actual dvd is placed underneath him, with The Tudors in big bold font next to it. Here it is not the dvd cover that is catching the audiences eye, similar to the loreal advert it is the actor, allowing the reader to spot him and as he is also famous, the target audience will then read on further.

Through this researc i have developed a further understanding of what i need to include to attract my audience to the product i am selling, using different techniques to catch their eye.

Evaluation

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

I feel like i have progressed a lot through the production of my music video and coursework through learning and understanding new techniques that i haven't used bfore. I have learnt a lot about the different forms and conventions of media this year and have utilised them in order to create my coursework pieces. I have used conventions through my analysis of many other music videos, by doing this setting myself a target to challenge them along the way; there are a number of techniques i used which i thought was compulsary in my music video which were aspects such as lighting, location, mise en scene, and character building. These put together created a typical pop music video of which i was able to research, plan and and gain a clear understanding of each element included in the video. The use of intertextuality in our music video helped it to become a 'reality' helping the audience relate to it, rather than just something to watch; an example of a music video including lots of intertextuality and postmodernism which is inspiring, is Lady Gaga and Beyonce's video 'Telephone'...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U

In our video there is two main protagonists, and another couple included also; I feel we have represented this typical 'couple in love' well to the audeince, gaining knowledge of how to go about filming this through researching other music videos similar. This shows how we have refelected real media products into our video. Each of these techniques i used to the best of my ability and thought was relevant, as lots, if not all music videos include these. I have already spoken about each of these in more detail and how i used them, however i have tried to make my video interesting through adding these to my video to match the song type and the storyboard and our original storyline also.
There is a number of things we have challenged and developed in our video, including the lighting and also the various camera shots. These two aspects are important to the videos outcome, as are both used in order to create a sense of mood and feeling withing the characters featured in the video, acting almost as a relationship between character and the audience. The different camera shots helped us gain a further understand of the characters situation, whether it be a close up or long shot we were able to discuss, and choose one that suits the situation most. Taking each shot from a number of different angles whilst filming allowed this option.
Our video would only attract pop music lovers as we have stereotypically chosen a pop, teenage image and an image of our actors to suit this view.
A final way in which i have challenged and developed real media conventions was through the use of our theory work. Propp's theory featuring 'structuralism' was incorperated in our video, it comes from the directors use of culture in the video and how they themselves portray this in their own way. I feel we have applied this in our own video through much research, planning and techniques.
We created a video that was effective yet had a storyline that made sense also, which would inevitably attract our target audience. Like many other videos, there is huge competition involving audience's and popularity, therefore as a group we tried to create something that will be a success to people we understand the most, our age group!

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

We used a number of techniques in order to create a link between each of our products, one important one being that the title is the same on each individual product, using preferably the same font to also create a similarity between them, allowing the audience to understand they work together to advertise the campaign im producing. I feel that the combination of all 3 of my products is effective and co operates nicely, as each of the pieces stick within our genre through the use of these techniques we followed. These attracting our target audience interesting them with our chosen image, font, and style. By using the same font and style throughout becomes recognisable to the audeince representing the albumns signature image, therefore when going out to purchase the cd they understand the link. We created a digipak CD cover, including the insert and back, and a magazine advertisement to promote this.

( Here is an examply of an Oasis Digipak)

Here are a few cd covers that i looked at whilst planning how to create my own; firstly i looked at Katy Perry's, as she is the artist we are using. This cd cover i liked because it is individual and different, i chose it because it reflects personality and attracts attention particularly to teenagers and the target audience. The cd cover is fun and looks as if it hasn't been taken too seriously, which adds character i feel interesting the public more. The second cd cover is Lady GaGa, again i chose this cd to research as it immediately attracts attention, being colourful and different; the cover represents her personality and is appealing to the audeince simply because she is the front cover, her persona alone attracting the public. Finally the third one is one of Pinks' cd covers, i liked this one because it is fun and different. The title 'Funhouse' links to the image portrayed on the cover, reflecting a implicit circus theme and showing Pink herself with her leg extended looking like she is having fun. This image refelcts the sense of fun, personality and colour, being interesting for me to grasp ideas from. Each of these images inspired me to create my own frontcover, however each of these focus mainly on the artist themselves, devoting the front cover to them. I decided after researching these that i can still add a sense of fun to my cd cover without it being the same as the majority of front covers such as those shown below, resulting in deciding not to feature the artist on the front cover.

The image used for our digipack was a photograph of a hand gesturing the 'peace' sign, using some of the features on photoshop we were able to add detail to the page using colour and a background of lots of blurred lights, aiming for the 'Vegas' effect. The Cd cover also includes another photograph of her in the inset, we used this as it sells to the audience, who in particular are 'Katy Perry' fans, as posing to be her would attract fans immediately to the Cd cover, initially allowing them to read on further and discover all information about the song itself. We included dates of possible tours she would be performing and also some quotes from the song and also awards that have been won by her. This adding fun to the insert attracting attention to it.

The magazine advert we also produced i feel would do well to attract attention to the audience and thought about what would work best, using the ideas i found from analysing a number of them earlier. The image on the front is again of Ricole, her stage name not Katy Perry but Carmen Veronica; she is sitting down, originally against a wall, holding up a lighter. I liked this look as it is edgy and represents our genre effectively. The image fo her immediately attracts attention, next to the font ( matching the other products) and then to the information on the poster, which also is a matching colour scheme. I feel that my main product and ancillary texts work together to combine a clear understanding and attraction to my products as a whole, I have kept within the genre and used my products to portray this as best as i could.
Overall i am very pleased with the outcome of all three of my products and feel they do well to compliment eachother in their own individual way.

3. What have you learned from your audiences' feedback?

I have learnt a lot from my audiences feedback, from them analysing my video and telling me what they like and dont like about it gave me the chance to assess my video and understand their point. Most of their answers were regarded the storyboard of the video itself. As Jess and I had already chosen to create a pop video, as this is what we agreeed on and the music that the majority of our friends enjoy listening to, we decided to settle on it and begin planning our video step by step. I paid attention to one of the questions i had asked in particular, concerning whether or not my storyboard was accurate and was easily understood within my video. My feedback on it was a mixed view, explaining that part of my storyline was misunderstood and could be looked at. This i benefitted from as once i had another look at my storyboard i was able to change it slightly, correcting it. This was due to the use of intertextuality in my video, Todorov's theory of equilibrium-disequilibrium-equilibrium, reflecting the continuous happy, sad, happy theme within my music video. I looked over the feedback again and again and tried to add or take away anything my target audience disliked, or thought i could improve on, which only came to benefit it and improve my video further. My audience gave me some really positive feedback, however I am also glad that they gave me back some bad feedback as i then had something to improve on and aim for. I feel like i have attracted the correct audience and am very pleased that they have shown a great interest in each product we have created, expressing their enthusiasm with each piece of our work.

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

There are a number of media technologies i used within the process of creating my music video, cd cover and magazine advert, I think i used each of these effectively and to my benefit. The first thing i used would be the programme Adobe premier pro. I have spoken already how i thought using this was above, however i thought it was a fairly straight forward programme to work, yet we did experience a couple of problems along the way. We tried to stay after school everyday in order to use this programme, and not only continue with our video but practice using the programme, this way it becoming easier everytime we use it. The programme was excellent, after working out how to attatch the song, video etc it soon all fit together and started to look professional! Another programme i used was Photoshop, this we had already had experience with during AS level, as we created a magazine front cover, double page spread and a contents page, we were more familiar with this programme, making it easier to use and quicker also. We created our magazine poster and cd cover using this, allowing us to play around with the photographs, font, background and information using the programme. I particularly like the programme because it allows you to correct any blemishes or uneven skin tone on the photograph you are using, giving it an 'airbrush' effect like they do in professional photoshoots. However, my coursework wouldn't of been completed without the use of internet; This not only helped me with my technologies such as the programmes i used, but the construction and the planning of my work. Through the internet of course we were able to use our blogs, which we have recorded all of our coursework on, including planning and evaluation. However, without the use of youtube and scribd, our blog would not have been any good, as a lot of the analysis and evalutation of different videos and theory are from videos on youtube. Which we had to put onto our blogs, scribd also allowed us to use and import pictures onto our blogs, which is just as important also.
The obvious media technologies i used to actually create my three products was a video camera, a camera, a flashlight, and an music speaker. The video camera we recorded everything we could to get lots of footage, we also needed the flashlight as it was dark to give us more light when shooting. I brought an ipod speaker with the song on it so it would be easier for us and our character to mime to the words, therefore later simply leaving us with matching it up. The camera we used to take our photograohs for the cd and magazine covers, these i have shown already on my blog.
For my research planning, i used mainly research from youtube, looking up lots of different videos that were like the one we were creating, the same music genre, code of clothing, etc. I did this to get a rough idea of what was already out there, in order to challenge this later on in my own work.

I took these photos during filming, i wanted to get a picture to put on here so I was able to explain why we decided to dress them this way. We took a couple more of these photos also, I wanted to show the actors before we began filming, they are all dressed in going out clothes and dresses as we wanted to show they had been to a party the night before. They all look a bit of a mess, also adding some humour and showing that they have not had a chance to get changed since last night, and have all crashed out, waking up and looking like this!

Rosco, Hannah, Ricole and Nick all took part in the making of our video and posed for these photographs. I think they set the scene, and also took them as an idea for the Cd cover we will be making, although we have chosen a different photograph now, as it was only an idea.

The photos of the four of them outside were taking in London by the fountain, one of those particular shots was also taken in our actual video, when Ricole goes up to someone (me) in the street and asks to take a photograph of them all. I think it's a good photograph and has captured the mood and 'state' they were in!

Audience

I have written a number of questions and asked my target audience about my video, what they think of it and what they think needs improving, here is there feedback.

1. Do you feel that the opening shot is relevant to the song? If not what would you change it too?

Yes, i think it is releant to the song, at first i was not sure why the shot of the fruit machine was there and i wondered why you decided to put it there. I wasn't sure if it would work at first until i heared the song, and the beggining shows the sound of money falling out os a machine, then i knew it was a good idea!

2. Do you think we have portrayed the theme of 'Vegas' well enough through the use of Mis-en scene?

I think you have portrayed the theme of Vegas very well, it must of been hard to try and portray that through simple the mise en scene. I really liked the way they were dressed throughout as if they were partying, which is very Vegas! I also liked the fact that you filmed up London, and tried to get as many bright and colourful lights in as much as you could. I like the use of playing cards that you have used as it is there to represent gambling.
Therefore i think you have done well to portray the theme you were aiming for.

3. Do you think we have enough different camera angles in our video?

I think you have got a number of good camera angles in there, however there could also be more. I think you have done well to of cut what you had at the beginning and narrow it down to what you have now although i think you need a few more if you are aiming to get top marks, maybe use some over the shoulder shots, or a high angle shot.

4. Do you think that the chorus' are more lively than the verses?

I had noticed that the verses of your song are not as upbeat as the chorus's, and are a little bit slower, they also seem more negative than the chorus' as a whole. I like the way that you have tried to speed the chorus' pace up to match the speed of the song, and the fact that the chorus gives off more of a happy vibe compared to the verses. I think you have done this well.

5. Do you think the actors we used came across genuine in their emotions?

I was suprised when i saw your video as i thought they would have been embarassed to film infront of everybody and act seriously, although when i saw it i was amazed that they did it without laughing! It was really good that they did it properly and it really set the scene for the video, they were quite professional, and im impressed with what it looks like, you should be too!

6. Do you think that our planning is paying off, or is there anything that you would change about the storyboard?

I think your storyboard links well within what you have created and matches as best as it could, however a couple of bits i found quite confusing, as some of the verses compared to the chorus are not completely clear, as you are following the happy, sad, happy routine, i think a couple of your storyboards have been mixed up in confusion, although it will be easy to fix if you have a look.
Apart from that i think that your storyboard is comoing along nicely, i like the fact that the video isn't pointless, that there is a message behind it that will interest and relate to people!

We used this feedback in order to improve our video and benefit from it, now that we have heared some feedback from our target audience i feel like we are a step ahead, as we have been able to improve our video to match they're answers.