Tamara Barrett

Question 1

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

Voyeurism is used in our music video in the beginning as the audience is watching the artist walk into a room, we used voyeurism at the beginning of the music video when the artist is being watched while walking into the computer room this adds mystery to the music video as the audience will be watching the artist however they will not see a full shot of what she looks like, one of the conventions of voyeurism that we challenged is that our artist is not shown in a sexual way.

Intertextuality is when a music video references another media product for example in Eminem’s music video ‘Just lose it’ he parodies Michael Jackson and the Sugarbabes music video ‘No can do’ where they have an interextual reference to the film ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Our music video uses intertexual references to Alice in wonderland as she is following a white rabbit we made this reference because like Alice she is curious to know where the white rabbit is going and is in an alternate universe, Donnie Darko as the rabbits are leading her to change the future, we used this reference because it leads on from the Alice in wonderland reference as the rabbit is a person in a mask that leads the artist to what is going to happen in the future, her costume is based on Harajuku, and her hair is blue as a reference to Pop Art; we choose to base the costume on this because we wanted our artist to stand out and for the colour to be something that she is well known for, and to show that she brings colour to the world. 1984 London as that’s when there where dark times in London this reference also links into her costume as at the beginning of the music video we see that everyone around in in dark clothing and not having fun this is to symbolise the dark times in London but she is in colour this was to symbolise that she is going to change things in the future and at the end of the music video we see that everyone is in colour and having fun. Intertexual references are often used in Dance music videos.

In the editing we stuck to the normal conventions of a dance music video as we had fast pace editing, keeping it in time with the music, we had disorientated editing. The shots in our music video are dark to make emphases on the colour that the artist is wearing to make sure that the lighting wasn’t high key we used a flashlight from a phone instead of the big lights as we felt that this also reflected the genre of our music video better as well because when we tried the big light we felt that they were to bright. In the first verse the Lyrics go with the visuals, which also support Andrew Goodwin’s theory. To place the audience on the side of the artist we used point of view shots the audience could see what the artist was seeing we also used some eye line matches, we used these shots to make the audience feel like they were going on the that journey our artist was going on.

Genre Iconography for Dance music would be fast pace editing, having a concept not a narrative, party and being seen in an alternative universe we chose to do this as we felt that it would increase the repeatability of our music video.

We stick to most of these iconographies however at the beginning of the music video the people at the party are not shown to be having fun this moves away from the iconographies but at the end of the music video they are shown as being happy and so it goes back into the genre iconography’s.

Question 2

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

Across my music video I and my ancillary texts I had attempted to maintain consistency of the representation of my star image. This is shown through the Mise-en-scene, used in my music video and my ancillary texts. My artist is shown to be wearing a blue wig in both the music video and ancillary texts this is because I would like to have this as my stars motif meaning that it’s something that my target audience knows my artist for having, my artist is also shown to be wearing bright make up for example bright red lips and being the light in the darkness in music videos I have kept this them in the ancillary texts as my artist is against a dark back ground and has bright make up on. The bright colour shinning though the dark is also a convention used in dance music videos this shows that the genre of my artist’s music is Dance.

That Text that I used on my ancillary texts reflects my star image as it shows her to be the kind of person that stands out and that doesn’t follow the crowd and is the light in the darkness, I have shown this by using a bold font and by using bright colours to make the words stand out in the dark just like my artist would. This is also conveyed in my music video as the artist stands out from the crowd and makes her own choices she also is shown in bright colours and is the light that brightens up the darkness.

Laura Mulvey is a theorist that states that women are shown to be sexual objects by men; I challenged this theory in both my Music video and ancillary texts as my artist is not shown in a sexual way, instead she is shown to be dominant, and in control of her own life. In my ancillary texts, I also challenge Laura Mulvey’s theory by having the pictures focus on my artist’s face instead of her body which is typically what is shown; the focus is also more on her star image being about her being a dominant woman, rather than a sexual object.

Camera shots used in my music video don’t show much of the artist instead they show her in dark lighting this makes her more mysterious and makes the audience want to know more about who she is for example we don’t see a long shots of her for very long and the editing is fast pace meaning the audience sees short clips of her for example her eyes and face when she is singing. In my ancillary texts I have also got shots of the artist’s face but with her eyes closed and a close up of her mouth and eyes opened on the digipak and on the poster I have a shot that looks like she is walking away from the camera this also goes her star image as in the music video she is leading the audience on a journey to a brighter future.

Overall I believe that I have kept the artists Star image constant across my music video I and my ancillary texts.

Question 3

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

I used different technologies to help me with my research. I used Web2.0 to use You Tube, Google to find music videos of the same genre, Survey monkey to get audience research and sound cloud to find a song. Using Web2.0 wasn’t time consuming, was accessible, had up to date information, convenient and through Survey Monkey I was able to generate a questionnaire with open and closed questions, and distribute it via email to my target audience. The website also collects the results for you and puts them in a table. Web2.0 gave me a wider range of research and helped my creative ideas for example intertexual references. It also made my audience feedback easy to understand which then meant that I could update my music video.

I used different technologies to help me in the planning of my music video. First I created a story board animatic in movie maker. This effectively helped me to plan my music video by creating a storyboard animatic instead of just drawing one helped me to visualize what my music video would look like. This also allowed me to create a list of what shots I would need to film and where I would need to film them. It also helped me in the editing as it helped me see what length each shot would need to be if I had drawn the storyboard I would not have been able to do this. Creating a story board animatic also helped me communicate ideas to the audience and gain useful feedback. Second I used Blogger, using blogger helped me to keep track of things and log them. I then used Microsoft power point to create a pitch for my music video that I could show to my target audience to get feedback and see if there were any elements of my music video that weren’t clear. I also used phone communication in the form of the app Whatsapp, Facebook and Email to keep in contact with the actors in the group and other member’s in my group this helped us plan meeting times and days when we can film, edit and review where we are with the music video and what we would need to do. EBay was also help full with buying props and costume for the music video for example the glow sticks and Blue Wig this help us to style the artist and build on showing the narrative of the music video.

I used different technologies to help me in the construction of my music video. To help with the construction my music video I also a SLR camera to take pictures of the artist and to film the music video; this allowed my music video to be high quality. I used Photoshop to edit the pictures I would use for the poster and digipak that I would make to promote the artist using Photoshop meant that I could enhance the colour of photos and edit the background they were on. To edit the music video I used Final Cut to cut some shots, add sound effects and to add the backing track. To download the song used I-tunes as this meant that the song would be on the computer and would be easier to add to the video.

Question 4

How the audience feedback helped develop your creativity?

I collected feedback from my audience when I was in the planning stage of the music video by filming the target audience asking question on the pitch that gave about my music video. I also got audience feedback after my music video in the form of a focus group. Getting audience feedback allowed me to realise what part of the music video I needed to improve on, for example in the planning stages I pitched my music video idea to my target audience I explained the genre, star image, and the narrative in the video this was so that the audience could understand more what was happening in the video. After explain these points in the pitch I ask if the audience had any questions and asked them what their initial thoughts were.

I was asked if the images from the London riots/ teacher strike were going to be referenced throughout the music video, or if they were going to be used to set the scene for my music video as this wasn’t made clear in the pitch. By my audience asking me questions about my music video I realised that the narrative of my music video wasn’t really clear this meant that while I was looking over my initial plan, I was able to improve the beginning of my music video, this was helpful in the production and post- production stages as I decided to use the images to set the scene instead of using them as references.

By making this pitch aimed at my target audience, I discovered that there were issues involved with my music video such as spray painting CCTV cameras sending a negative image out. Getting feedback about this issue made me think of an alternative beginning to highlight the fact that the artist is being watched , this is shown in my final video as my artist is walking into an empty room, watching a monitor showing the strikes happening in London. By improving the music video based on my audience feedback I was able to make it more appealing for them.

After my music video I also carried out a focus group asking my audience questions about the video, star image, genre, intertextuality etc. when I asked my audience about the genre of the music video they could clearly state that my genre was dance. The audience also picked up on the fast pace editing and stated that this feature was common in dance music videos. I also discovered that my artist’s star image came across strong in my music video I know this because my audience were able to identify particular characteristics and ideologies associated with my artist. For example one of the audience members said that she could see that my artist was bold, curious and unique, this was shown through her costume and through her constant search to find the DJ’s and be part of a revolution. My audience were also able to pick out the intertextual references straight away for example our reference to Donny Darko, one audience member also felt that there was an Alice in Wonderland theme in my music video, this was clearly shown in the fact that the artist was in search of something (the DJ in the white rabbit mask).

Overall, I felt that my music video appealed to my target audience I felt this way because my target audience were able to pick out the things that they liked such as the fast paced editing in the beginning of the music video, and how the editing matched the beat of the music. My audience seemed pleased with the music video and said that they would recommend it to others in my target audience.