The document discusses the evaluation of a media product including a music video, CD covers, and website created for an artist. It addresses how the products used, developed, or challenged conventions of real media. Feedback was received on each product from audiences. A variety of media technologies were used at different stages of constructing, researching, planning and evaluating the project, including cameras, editing software, social media, and more. The combination of the main music video product and ancillary texts of the website and CD covers was generally effective through the use of various film techniques, continuity of style, and synergy across products.
2. Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
3. CD COVERS Here is Rihanna the artists front cover for her “good girl gone bad” The use of the black and white is to show her transformation from an innocent Rihanna to a not so innocent Rihanna, this idea we portrayed I portrayed in my front cover as well, therefore I conformed to the artists cover conventions. The use of the artists name in a light blue bold serif font is to make the artists name stand out in addition to using the colour blue to portray her innocence, as the colour light blue is usually associated with peace , calm and innocence. In my front cover i created a yellow police tape as the image of the artist i used reflects her darker side so the police tape was to represent her being tied to trouble. For the back of the track I stuck to the conventions similar to that of a Rihanna cover. this includes; barcode, track listing, the production details, an image of the artist , a spine which includes the name of the artist and album and the website for the artist Here is the artist “R” logo from her “RATED R” album. I also created this logo in illustrator and used for my front cover
4. MUSIC VIDEOS Low angle shots are regularly used in Rihanna’s music videos, she is an artist who is portrayed as fierce and confident, in our music video we made use of low angle shots to show that the female artist was the one in control as we look up at her. The use of close up shots especially of the artists face, is used to draw in the attention of the audience and feel connected with the artist as their facial expressions show the emotion in what they are singing.
5. The use of a super imposition, in our music video we used this editing technique to show a transition of the two sides of the artist, as the concept of the video was good vs. bad. The artists body language, performance and acting is a major convention in her music video, Rihanna often sexualises her self either through her body language the way she dances of touches certain parts of her body, in our music video we stuck to this convention to an extent but we did not overtly sexualise the female like Rihanna the artist usually does.
6. The use of the gun, which was our main prop for our music video, from researching into other Rihanna music video’s where a gun was used, it was evident that the gun makes her seem more powerful and give's her this superior exterior, this challenges the conventions of R&B music videos as woman are hardly ever the ones with the superior exterior, women are usually portrayed as ‘soft’ and weaker or inferior to men. Canted angles are used in some of Rihanna’s music videos, the purpose of using this angle is to create an effect of chaos. For our music video we used canted angle to show that the scenario in the video is chaotic as the audience do not know whether the artist will fire the gun or not until the end of the video.
7. MALE GAZE In theory woman are often portrayed as objects and this conforms to the conventions of the R&B genre, the “Male Gaze” helps female artists to sell their products, especially as within modern marketing “sex sells” . In our music video we conformed to this idea by having our model regularly look into the camera to draw in the attention of the audience through her gaze.
8. WEBSITE The layout of my website is similar to that of the artist, Rihanna. I browsed other websites other than her official website and I came a cross a fan page that had the same colours used for my CD covers . For my website I continued to use the colour scheme of black, white, greys and yellows. To conform to most webpage's for artists I included links to social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube) I also advertised the artists latest album on the main page. A log in and sign up i also included as it is important for the artist to make their fans and target audience feel involved with their work. To add the logo is visible along with the artists name and an image of her from the music video. Logo/Artists name News Social networks Fan page http://www.rihannanow.com/
9. Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product (music video) and ancillary texts (the website & digipak)?
10. Mise-en-Scene Editing Composition Montage Editing Location/Setting Jump Cut Acting and figure movement Slow motion Dissolve Costume and make-up Camera Work With the use of Camera Work, Editing, Sound and Mise-en-Scene I as able to combine my main products effectively. Props Lighting Focus pulls Sound Dutch Tilt Zoom Stedicam Non-Diegetic Long Shot Medium Shot Pleonastic Extreme Close Up Close Up Medium Close Up
11. Costume By including a fashion section on the webpage i am showing the use of synergy. An artists image is vey important to the fans or just those who simply like the artists fashion sense. The artists costume was one of the key things in our music video as image is an important factor in the R&B genre, the pictures above is what our model used for the music video, the pictures on the right are pictures of Rihanna. we wanted to portray an innocent Rihanna and a darker, not so innocent side.
12. Location The location was very important as that is where the filming gets done. We used the model for our music videos’ living room, as well as a pavement in an urban area as well as the studio. Models Living Room The Studio The Pavement
13. Artist The artist always has shots of her lips either singing or being sexual with her lip movements. The use of low angle shots, is used to portray the artist as superior. The use of a dissolve created the effect that we were going for, as the concept of the video was about a woman who wanted to take out revenge, but she was spilt between her two sides, the good vs. bad. So as shot A gradually disappears shot B appears.
14. Lighting The studio lights helped the quality of the filming, as we could highlight the artist or objects when we wanted to. We also done a lot of experimenting with lighting to see what effects we could create. With the lighting equipment we could brighten the artists face for close up, medium close up and extreme close up shots.
15. SYNERGY The use of synergy between all three products i used to ensure an effective package. The continuity of the colours i made evident across all three products, the majority of the music video was in black and white so I kept to the black and white theme; I added colour to my CD covers and website because there were parts of the music video which were in colour. The ‘R’ which is the artists logo or brand identity I also made evident so that fans would be able to relate to it as they would be aware of it already.
16. Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
18. CLICK HERE TO VIEW MUSIC VIDEO MUSIC VIDEO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k6zzIentYw This shows how many people have viewed our music video. This shows those who liked or disliked our music video. Number of views as well as likes and dislikes, increased. Feedback 4
19. This is feedback i got on my Facebook, concerning our music, the feedback was very positive “produced a good video”. Feedback 5 This is constructive criticism, a mixture of positive and negative feedback that I received via Black berry messenger. Feedback 6 “the lick the gun bit was gd”
20. From this feedback I feel as though this person did not understand the concept of us using black and white for the majority of the video. If we split screened the video at the beginning showing the innocent Rihanna with the the Evil one then our idea might have come across better. Feedback 7
21. WEBSITE CLICK IMAGE TO PLAY Feedback 8 “I like the contrast of grey and yellow” Feedback 9 Great feedback for my website.
22. Summary from Feedback WEBSITE For the website I got the mostly positive feedback, especially on the layout of the website and the colours used. On the other hand I received feedback stating that the ‘R’ could be overlooked so the positioning and the colour should be changed in order for it to stand out more. “I like the contrast of grey and yellow” “I like the front cover the most” CD COVERS From the feedback most people preferred the front and back due to the use of black and white colours as well as the yellow. The inside covers I did not spend as much time on as I did for the front and back and this is what caught the attention of my audience, so I believe I have achieved an aim as consumers pay attention to the front and back covers as they do not often get the opportunity to view the inside covers. To improve my CD covers I would experiment with more colours and different images. MUSIC VIDEO For the music video overall most people were impressed but I received more constructive criticism for it. Feedback 6 pointed out that the camera quality could be improved, the quality of the video decreased as it got uploaded onto YouTube. Too add feedback 6 also stated that artist should have danced more instead of just singing, which I agree with as dancing makes the video come to life. “better locations”
23. Q4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
24. Editing Photos Feedback PowerPoint Feedback Feedback Taking Pictures Filming Designing Fonts Blog Taking Pictures Holding the camcorder Website Editing music video Storing Photos & print screens
26. Using Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/caye_/ I also used flickr to upload screenshots of my work as i progressed from one stage to another . I enjoyed using flickr as I could store the photos I Took.
27. Using camera, sound and lighting equipment Using the video camera was difficult at first, but after i got a few practice runs with it I enjoyed filming. I used a professional digital camera to take pictures and the quality of the pictures in comparison to a standard digital camera was evident. I used the sound system to play the song and the lighting system to detect which lights we would use, I found the spotlights to be very useful during our filming and photo shoot.
28. Using Final Cut Pro I used Final Cut Pro, to put our music video together. I had to digitize the filmed pieces and then log and capture the shots we wanted to use. After different shots had been merged together creating jump cuts, straight cuts and cross-cutting. I could also add effects as well as other editing techniques such as dissolve, flashing lights, slow motion. The coloured key board made it easier to navigate whilst using Final Cut Pro as the buttons display what it’s function is for.
29. Using Adobe Software Making active links via Dreamweaver Using Adobe software was probably the most difficult technicality I had, but from AS I have had more practice with the Adobe software and I have improved on my knowledge and understanding of how to use and get around using the Adobe software. I used Photoshop to create my CD covers and Webpage, I used Illustrator to create different fonts and i also used Dreamweaver to create the active links for my webpage. Creating Police tape Embedding the music video Airbrushing From this to this
30. Using Social Networking Sites I used social networking sites to showcase my products as well as gaining audience feedback about my products. I used Facebook to receive audience feedback and I used YouTube to post our music video, so that people could watch it and leave their comments. YouTube and Facebook are one of the most popular social networking sites, it’s easy to find them and navigate around them.
31. The Things That Did Not Go To Plan We originally planned to use a motor bike but we found it difficult to get a hold of one. We also wanted to include dancers but when we put our choreography together and filmed our dancers they did not blend in with the rest of the video, so we just decided not to include the background dancers as we agreed that it made our video look tacky. Too add we tried to create a smoke effect with power but that didn’t come out well, it just created a mess in the studio. Filming in the studio was the easiest way to get our filming done but as we watched our video we realised that the curtains we used in the studio did not come out as we wanted, the only curtain that came out well as a background was the black curtain with our actress in a white outfit. The white curtain looked more dustier in comparison to the actors top in the video (which was white), the blue curtain that we used was not stretched out properly there for creating a rippling effect in the background, which worked out for us in some shots. CURTAIN
32. CONCLUSION In conclusion all three of my products, which include, Music video, Digipack and Website I am very proud of and they all present the use of synergy in one form or another.
