Our music video

Examiner (J.H)

To make it easier to see who has done what within our group, I have decided to mark all my posts with the persons initials.

J.H (Jessica Higgs) - This being the work I have done or created myself

J.P (Jodie Phillips) and K.P (Keira Pain) - This being the work other members of the group have created

Evaluation Question 4 (J.H)

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

For the research, planning and production of my media work I used a variety of technologies. The main one being the Apple Mac, which I used for everything including Imovie and Blogger. I have used the Macs for many years now so I know how to use them properly, but due to the Macs being from Apple there is always a blocked plug in when trying to watch videos or make Prezi's as these things are not compatible. There is also a downside about using the schools accounts due to a lot of the websites and images being blocked, this was the problem for us at the beginning of the year as Blogger was blocked for about 3 weeks.

The second main technology that I used during my media course was my digital camera. I already knew how to use this to take photographs, and I also had experience with filming but filming the scenes for my music video was the first time that I had filmed on my camera. Doing this was easy, although I had to experiment with different angles due to the bad lighting in the toilets scenes and I also had to learn how to transfer the footage from my camera to the Mac computer, as at first I wasn't sure whether they would be compatible. 

Another main piece of media technology that I used was Blogger, as I had to use it to post all of my planning and research that led up to making the music video. I found that blogger was easy to use as I used it last year in my AS course, although I did have some difficulties while using it as the website was blocked. One thing I don't like about blogger in school is that when you are editing a post, the images that you upload to that post are never visible, this makes it hard to rearrange the images so has to be all done at home.

I also used my iPhone throughout this course to install the blogger app which came in handy when I needed to quickly edit a post on my blog or quickly add a picture, this app was useful to me as I could do it on the go. I also used my phone to look at music videos on the YouTube app and to find pictures that could be included on my blog. YouTube was also useful for us to be able to advertise our music video and then embed it onto our blogs.

Another form of advertising was for me to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to promote my music video, this was successful as it reached our target audience of 12-18 year olds as these networking sites are popular for that age group. Jodie also used Twitter to request for Katy Perry's permission to use her song for our music video.

One of the main apps I used for our music video was Imovie, and since we made an opening sequence to a horror movie last year we knew how to use it, so we didn't have to waste time trying to learn new things. As I was the one who edited the music video, it did take up a lot of my time trying to get it all to a good standard and how we wanted it, all edited in time with the beat and lyrics. While using Imovie this year I have learnt new ways to edit, from other class mates, which we couldn't find out ourselves. This was mostly the edit of the flashbacks in the toilet while the bully had his head in his hands, where we had to edit the clip on top of another clip.

The second main app I used for my blog work was Photoshop, which I had only used once a couple of years ago. I had to use this to produce my digipak, magazine advert, and my media showcase poster. I got the hang of Photoshop quite fast just by messing around with different tools and now find it quite easy to use.

Whilst writing up my evaluation I decided to include more technologies to make my work more interesting. To do this I used a Prezi for my question 2 just to make it more appealing and interesting to read. I used Prezi quite a lot last year for my horror movie so I knew how to use it so it didn't take me to long.

Also for my evaluation and throughout the rest of my blog I have used gifs, which come in handy as you can include more than one picture or a piece of film you want. I have made these on Makeagif.com which has come in very handy and makes my blog look less boring.

Evaluation Question 3 (J.H)

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

As we had to get some audience feedback, we decided as a class to have a 'media showcase' in school, where we invited teachers and pupils to come along and watch our music videos and to be interviewed at the end. At the showcase me, Jodie, jacob and Keira also sold popcorn to raise money for the media department.
This is our audience feedback, where Jodie is asking the questions Keira wrote and I am filming.

Since we were only interested in the audience feedback, the filming isn't very good due to the light being behind the subject, which we didn't mind, but couldn't help due to the fact we had to rush and film everyone before they left.

Question 1
Did you understand the concept and narrative of our music video?

After interviewing everyone about our music video we found that everyone clearly understood that our video is about bullying and how you can overcome it by standing up for yourself. One person thought our video was the best regarding the narrative and another thought that the narrative reflected bullying being like a cycle, where the bully becomes the bullied.

Question 2
Do you think the video raises awareness for bullying?

From this we were told our video represents all the different aspects of bullying that occurs in schools, and that the characters and scenes we chose for the video reflected bullying very well. We were also told that our video would work well if the target audience was of a school age, which it is.

Question 3
Is there any elements you think we could of improved on?

Most people thought that there was nothing we could of improved on, and one teacher said that we didn't have any wasted shots within our video unlike some of the others. Although one person did mention that our editing could of been a bit sharper, but we worked well with the time and editing facilities that we had available.

Question 4
What did you like or dislike about our video?

After asking this question we were told that people enjoyed the special effects, and the black and white scene where it rewinds showing where the victim was being bullied and how it all unraveled. Also the narrative was enjoyed along with the scenes that we had picked to fit in with it.
The only dislike we had was that some of the scenes were a little bit to long, so they could of been cut a bit sooner as they did draw out.


From showing our video at the media showcase we have found from audience feedback that people enjoyed our music video and found it easy to follow and understand the meaning of it. One thing that we could of improved on, is some of the editing could of been sharper and scenes could of been shorter, but apart from that our response was very positive.

Evaluation Question 2 (J.H)

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

Most of the pictures you see in my prezi are actually gifs, but they didn't seem to work when I put them on there.

Evaluation Question 1 (J.H)

In what ways does your promotion package for your album use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real music videos?

Before starting my music video I had to research into the different codes and conventions of a music video. By doing this I found out that there are three main types of music video, narrative, performance and conceptual. Performance videos show only the band performing the song, while narrative videos show a storyline throughout the length of the song, including an actor or the artist themselves, and conceptual videos are created using special effects. A lot of videos have a bit of everything, which makes it easier for the audience to relate to.
For our music video we decided to create a narrative, which we thought would be easier as there would be no shots of the artist. We decided to do 'Roar' by Katy Perry as the lyrics are very meaningful, and we thought of a good storyline for the song. Although the artist is a female, we decided we wanted the main character to be male, which is similar to the music video 'Titanium', where our inspiration for our video came from. In Titanium the young boy is isolated and alone, which is what we tried to capture in our video, by isolating him in the toilet away from everyone else. The video shows how both genders get bullied as there is a female vocalist and a male actor, which the audience could relate to as it is aimed at young teenagers. We wanted our video to be simple so people could understand it and follow the story, as it is also being used as an anti-bullying campaign.
One of the main conventions of a music video is the lip syncing, which we decided to go against, due to having a male main character and wanting all the focus to be on the story, so its more clear, as you're not distracted by someone singing.
For our video the cuts had to be in time with the music and the lyrics so it would make sense. Where the music sped up, so did some of the shots, but we didn't want to speed everything up to go in time with the music as the story would move to fast for the audience to follow.
These are some of the best shots as they go in time very well with the lyrics. The first one being 'You knocked me down but I got up' showing how he recovers from the abuse

And the second being 'I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar', showing how he sticks up for himself, because he has had enough.

digipak

Before creating my digipak I did some research into other artists and their digipaks. I looked at how they were set out, the pictures that were included in them, the colour scheme and most of all, what the front cover looked like.
I got my inspiration for my digipak from Rihannas album 'Loud', where her album has a border, and the album name is spread out across the whole front cover, there is also a close up of Rihanna's face as the front cover.
To get the photos for my digipak, we had a photoshoot, with Jodie as the model, where we had bags full of clothes and made up some outfits. For my digipak I wanted to capture the 'School girl' style, with a tie and bubble gum or lolly pops, as it goes well with our video, due to it being at school.
When creating my digipak I wanted to make it eye catching, by using the same colour theme throughout, and lots of different photos of Jodie. The back cover links with the album name 'Prism' as I have put a triangle on the back which I have faded out, and on this are all the songs of the album. The font also links in with the album name as the font for 'Prism' has a triangular shape to it.
The audience for katy Perry is around 12-18 year olds, and the album has a fun school theme to it so would interest the audience, it is also seductive with the dark and bold colours of red and the focus on her lips, which would appeal to the older audience.

magazine 

Before creating my magazine advert I had to research into other artists who have had magazine adverts, where I found some from Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Rihanna. I have taken inspiration from Rihanna's magazine advert and how she has slightly faded the image in the background, and have done the same with mine. I also used the idea of showing the digipak on the advert, which katy perry hasn't done on her advert, but thought would be good for the audience to see.
My advert links in very well with my digipak as I have used the same colour theme for both of them, so they work well together, the same style photo, and the font used for my magazine advert is also the font I used for my digipak. To make it look like a magazine advert I had to include when the release date for the digipak is, the artist, and some of the popular songs that feature on the album.

Magazine advert (J.H)

This is my magazine advert I have created to advertise Katy Perry's new album Prism. I have created the advert to look similar to the digipak I also created.

I took the theme of this advert from one of Rihanna's magazine adverts, where the album is also shown on the advert, unlike in Katy's. I decided to fade the image so you could see the writing better, which Rihanna has also done in her advert.