Evaluation of my A2 media coursework

1. G324 ADVANCED PORTFOLIO IN MEDIA Rihanna – G4L Evaluation By Flora Osei

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

3. QUESTION 1 My video: cinematography editing lighting Rihanna Video:

4. Music video If video doesn’t play click hyperlink. Video may have to be paused to read annotations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoUexG1KGl8

5. WEBSITE My website: Rihanna’s Website: Click to play

6. Digipack Click to play Mine: Front Cover Inner Left Inner Right Back Cover Rihanna’s:

7. Lighting However in some parts of the video such as the street scenes the video was poorly lit and this made the video look of low quality. We used lighting very effectively in some parts of the video because we were able to create shadows on the artists face and convey the idea of a double personality through the way she was lit

8. Make-up Click to play

9. costume Click to play

10. location The locations we used were very minimal and some people said that this was boring, if we were doing the music video again, we would consider using more locations. chair Click to play road studio

11. artist Click to play

12. Question 2 How effective is the combination of your main product (music video) and ancillary texts (the website & digipack)?

13. Synergy – male gaze In all three products I made sure that artist continuously looked straight at the audience. This return of the male gaze was used to make her look like a powerful female because usually rnb artists such as Leona Lewis would look away from the camera. But I wanted to represent my artist as an active female. This use of the male gaze across all three products created synergy. Music video Website Digipack

14. SYNERGY – COSTUME & MAKE-UP Music video We used the same costumes throughout all three of the media products not only to create synergy but to firmly establish the good girl and bad girl identities of the two characters. I think in terms of costume and make up the three media products synergy is used very effectively. Website Digipack

15. SYNERGY – OTHER ASPECTS Music video The three media products also link synergetically in other aspects such as: the brand identity “R” which appears on both the website and the CD cover and the back cover. The gun appears in all three products. But the main element that helped create synergy across these three products was the use of greyscale and the colours black and white. However I tried to make my website stand out a bit more by having one image of the artist in colour just like the lips in the music video. Website Digipack

16. Question 3 What have you learned from your audience feedback?

17. FEEDBACK 1 – Music video Facebook: Youtube: The feedback from facebook and youtube was all mainly positive and a lot of people liked the video. Only one person disliked the video on youtube and a few criticisms of the video on facebook were the lack of locations and the repitiveness of the black and white colouring. One person on facebook commented on the artist’s foot wear which was something that we wanted the audience to notice whilst watching the video because from our questionnaire we found out costume was very important to the audience.

18. FEEDBACK 1 – MUSIC VIDEO Blackberry Messenger: 4) 1) 3) 2)

20. More scenarios

21. LocationsX – DIDN’T WORK WORKED

22. Feedback 2 – front cover From the feedback I have received it is clear that the target audience understood the concept of the front cover. One of the target audience also said that she would buy it and another said it looked like a real product which is something very positive. The only thing I would change about this is that I would make the good girl more distinctive by possibly putting her in colour.

23. Feedback 2 – back cover The target audience also gave very positive feedback about the back cover as well. From the feedback I can tell the thing they liked the most is the contrasting of the black and white. Some also mentioned the guns in the middle of the CD as it directly relates to the song and the video so they also liked how synergistically linked everything together. However improvements that I would make to this is the font on the back cover as it is quite hard to read as one of the target audience also mentioned.

24. Feedback 2 – inner covers The target audience also liked the inner covers. On facebook the right inner cover received positive feedback and ‘likes’, one of the target audience also realised the concept behind the cover. On blackberry messenger it got described as a “poster quality picture” which is very positive as usually some of these covers are turned into posters. For the left inner cover the target audience once again recognised the use of synergy and the cover was described as “simple and effective”. Improvements I would make to the left inner cover is making it look more professional as I think it looks rather amateur.

25. Feedback 3 - website The audience liked how the website looked like the Rihanna website so this shows I did my research into her previous products well. They also liked how the website is very easy to navigate and has all the capabilities websites should have. They also mentioned the advertising of the music video and the CD. However improvements I could make is changes to the background as one of the target audience mentioned it was too busy and took attention away from the rest of the site. I would also change the font because some of it is hard to read especially the font for the box office.

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

27. WHAT I USED... Used to put slideshows on the internet Used to film music video Used to print screen blackberry messenger Used for feedback Used to edit music video Used to make website links Used for making logos and lettering Used to take pictures Used to edit pictures Used to blog my progress Used to keep photos Used to communicate with group Used for feedback & to upload music video Used for feedback Used to hold camera

28. Using photoshop Photoshop enabled me to create products that were like real media products. A vast majority of media products these days are often airbrushed to enhance the image because artists like to be represented as perfect, so when creating my media products I made sure that I also airbrushed them. I always used photoshop to change picture quality, the colour of pictures, to put the CD covers together and even to create the layout of my website. Airbrushing Creating the logo Before After Making things greyscale Putting things together

29. Using illustrator I used illustrator to create the texts that appeared on my CD cover and my website. I also used illustrator to create the banner which went across the top of my website which acted as the navigation bar. Being able to use illustrator allowed me to create a similar logo to the one that Rihanna already has because it is a very recognisable brand identity. I also used illustrator to trace images of the gun that appeared on the CD covers. Bullet hole trace Creating the logo on illustrator Trying other logos

30. Using final cut pro Final cut pro was the hardest out of all the technologies to use because it takes practice and patience to get the editing precise. Apple mac Cassette player Keyboard This is the equipment that I used to edit the music video. The keyboard had different functions and made the video much easier to edit. As I was editing the music video I was also able to watch it on the television. The cassette player was used to insert the video so that the footage could be digitized and then log and captured. Television

31. WORKING IN THE STUDIO The studio is where a majority of the music video was created. I became familiar with how to step up the video camera and positioning it so that we got the right shots. I also familiarised myself with the different curtains because the good girl was filmed on a black curtain background and the bad girl was filmed on a white curtain background. The sound mixer was used to play the music in the background so that our artist could lip sink in time to the song – this sound was later taken off the clips in the editing suite.

32. Using dreamweaver Dreamweaver is what I used to make the links on my website live and to put the music video from youtube onto the website. Dreamweaver was quite straight forward once I practiced using it a bit. The first two images show the website on dreamweaver. The bottom image shows the live links, the blue rectangles on top of it shows that the links have been sliced and have been turned into “hotspots” aka links

33. Using facebook Facebook not only helped me with my research and planning but it also allowed me to find out who my target audience is. Because she has a vast majority of fans from all over the world and of different ethnicities. Most of her fans as I expected are females of around 15-25 of different ethnicities. However there was also quite a large male fan base on her facebook. Shows the amount of people in the group Her official facebook page People in the group

34. Using youtube Using youtube I was able to search for previous Rihanna songs and this enabled me to look at things that regularly occur in her music videos. I also found Rihanna’s vevo channel on youtube and this helped me find more of her target audience. This is where I found more of her target audience.

35. conclusion In conclusion my three media products worked really well as one. Some improvements could be made to the music video to enhance it as I found out from audience feedback. I think the front cover of the digipack came out the best out of everything but overall all my products worked in cohesively because I made sure that the synergy was clear,