Evaluation

My brief was to create a promotion package for the release of a new album, which was to include a music promo video with two ancillary texts which are a cover for the release of the Digi pack with a CD/DVD cover and magazine advertisement for the Digi pack/CD/DVD.
To get a better idea of the forms and conventions for my music video I looked at some music videos with the same genre of music to mine. I looked at the mise-en-scene, editing and what audiences they attracted. The genre I chose for my music video was dance because a lot of my target audience listen to this genre of music also its my favourite genre. I focused on this at the beginning so that half way through my research and planning wouldn’t look like it was not fit together.

Before I started filming I carried out some research on the conventions of a music video. I analysed four music videos which were either similar to how I wanted my music video or of the same genre as my music video. They are all on my blog via a you tube embedded link. I also added the video directors name, date released and music company of each researched music video with the same genre as mine. The feedback I received will be very reliable as the videos will have been seen by a very wide range of audiences. I used LIIAR to analyse the music videos I researched. I did the majority of my research over the internet but some research with my questionnaires. I discovered my target audience with the results of the questionnaires which I gave out to ten females and ten males to make the research even, the results made my target audience as Young Adults. Once I had chosen my genre and found my target audience I made the results into pie charts so that they were clearer to see instead of going through all the questionnaires. I did research on my chosen artist and song so I could get better idea of the other types f music he has produced. I am going to give my audience what they want by using my target audience in my video.

When I analysed the music video I had made sure I talked about any editing which was done and the institution about the video.
I had the choice to choose which ancillary texts I wanted to produce but I chose to do a Digipack and a magazine advertisement. I had to do planning, research and developments of my chosen text which are all shown on my blog.

In my AS coursework I did use some editing suite facilities unlike the A2 students at wyke this year as I didn’t come to wyke college on my first year of A level studies, I had to create a thriller which lasted two minutes and add my own editing. I was in a group of 3 which meant we had to share the editing between us fairly however we still all had to have separate paper work and evaluations. In my A2 year at Wyke I had to use a blogger website to display all my work onto which I had never used before unlike the other A2 students at wyke. At Driffield sixth form I had to display my work on Microsoft slide shower but I prefer the blogger a lot more, it is practical and much easier to use. In my first year I didn’t have to do any extra research on past thrillers so I had extra time to edit the video unlike this year.

Before I started filming I had to do lots of planning such as, health & safety, location, prop list, characters and test shots & scripting. I made some small tables on Microsoft Excel to hand out to my cast so they would know when and where we were meting on arranged times and dates, this made it a lot easier and organised for me as the music video director. The technology I had to use made me more confident before even editing my video clip. After I had finished filming my music video I had to uploads the clips I filmed onto Adobe Premiere Pro which is an editing programme in which you can crop and put effects onto your filming. I uploaded my clips by using a Fire wire connected from the camera through to the USB in the editing suite computer. We had to evaluate and analyse our chosen music videos to research genre, we did this using you tube and embedding the URL onto our blogs so when people looked our blogs they could see the video as well as reading the analysis.
I used my Blackberry mobile phone to take pictures for testing shots because it has a 5 mega pixel camera and didn’t want to use the video camera to take still videos to change into pictures when uploaded onto the editing suite. I uploaded the pictures I took from my phone using a USB Bluetooth dongle. I designed my CD cover using Paint so it was easier to move images around compared to other programmes.

I think I met audience expectation because I chose a very well known song for my music video so people would already expect an upbeat music video to go with the song. I got ideas for my video through the lyrics for example, “its my life and i’m living it now”. Also Tom Sapp influence y music video a lot due to his photography. He did a lot of beach scenes of children, family’s and young adults. Fort Fisher is one of Tom's favourite places to photograph family portraits and wedding events. The Shoreline Oak trees, rocks and structures across from the Fort Fisher Museum render a verity of fun environments for portrait backgrounds. This immediately chose my location a beach because of his influential photography. I did not want to have any still photos in my music video due to my song been a very upbeat and fast tempo. I chose my cast carefully otherwise my video wouldn’t have look as effective as it does. I chose James Cooper to be in my music video because he was the perfect image for my target audience. It would have been also easy to change his "look" if I wanted to by a change of clothes/ hair style ect. He always turned up on time which I knew he would and was a very reliable source for the video. I chose Amanda Croft to feature in my music video because she was also like James Cooper a perfect image towards my target audience. Because Amanda was 18 it was the same as my target audience I also knew that Amanda would not let me down when I planned for us to shoot and she always turned up the correct clothes I asked her to be in. Amanda was an iconic representation of beauty because she had blonde hair and blue eyes which reflected in my music video when all finished. At the beginning of planning my video ideas and story board I tried to be as creative as I could. Originally I wanted to have all my music video in black and white so it would look modern but then I decided against it as when I started editing the special effects I added to my clips didn’t look as effective in black and white. When I made my final decision to film my music video on a beach at first I did have some doubts as to my cast being able to get to Bridlington and when we could all met up to film. I had to choose my location very carefully. In the end I chose Bridlington beach because I knew that in the days during the week when I was filming it wouldn’t be as busy compared to a weekend also if I chose a more commercial place such as Scarborough it would have been too busy to film on the beach during the day and even on the night as well. I wanted to create a happy/fun mood with my video and the lighting made this clearly possible. It was a bright day the second time I filmed so it made this happy/fun mood makeable. All the shots were taken on Bridlington beach.
I didn’t want to use voyeuristic pleasure in my music video because I didn’t want my characters/artists singing or miming anything in the music video and would rather have a video which has so narrative structure because my audience research showed that that was the most liked type of music video. I wanted my music video to be a bit like a short film but with no narrative structure to it.

I used all the usual music video conventions for example, Lyrics normally create a general feeling/mood/ sense of subjects rather then meaning, Music tempo influences the editing, Genre can be reflected in types of mise-en-scene/themes/camera or editing style. has own music style/iconography
Camera, makes the meaning obvious. The Angle and shot distance all play a part in the representation of the artist/band, Editing fast cutting montage it normally most popular also depending on genre but can fit more action into the video when using this technique. Making many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing, so ensuring numerous viewing. This offers different kinds of pleasure for the audience. (Voyeuristic pleasure)

We had to produce another two ancillary texts which was a CD cover and a magazine to sell the CD cover. The main convention I used for my CD cover was still a beach theme the same as my music video. I thought the font I used on my CD front cover was important as it stand out a lot compared to the back drop of the cover. I used a posh/fancy style of font because any other style of font wouldn’t have look right because of the background of the cover also my chosen style of font would be more eye catching in a music store such as HMV as all the CDs would be placed alphabetically. I didn’t want to have Armand Van Helden on my CD front cover but I wanted to do something more original and different so it was linked to my music video. Genres such as R & B rely on voyeuristic pleasure to sometimes sell their albums and I didn’t want my CD cover to come across like this. I think my CD cover is well thought out because I have used photography for my front cover and not a graphic design. The back of my CD cover is also very much connected to my music video as it’s a photo of a pair of footprints in the sand. I have made up some song names on the back of the CD cover which are in numerous order. I placed a barcode on the back on the CD cover which is a main convention of CD covers for retail use. I also added the I wanted the audience to feel the connection between my music video and the CD covers that why I chose to use photography.

I think my final piece of work is good as an overall product because although I didn’t use any voyeuristic pleasure throughout any of my construction my final product is still good quality along with my ancillary texts. I think my video does communicate with the audience as it contains the target audience within the music video. I think my video communicates a cheerful mood towards the target audience by using a wide range of different shots and having very good actors. Throughout my music video the cast are always happy and smiling which is what I wanted them to do so this would portray across to the audience.
I used trademark records for my company’s logo. Originally set up in 1995 as E=MCs Record Pool to aid the Californian DJ's with locating and purchasing their music. Trademark Records has evolved into the leading Ebay provider of Drum 'n' Bass. Trademark Records is owned by Mark Shrimpton A.K.A. DJ Trademark. I wanted to use this company to distribute my CD cover because my artist was firstly a DJ so it reflected on the CD cover.
My final ancillary text was to produce a magazine front cover which would try sell the CD album. I tried to make my magazine design interesting by adding borders and marketing captions such as “bonus feature – You Don’t Know Me music video included!”. I have used the same image a the front CD cover so it all link together with the CD album and music video also the audience will know this. I included a HMV logo in the bottom corner of the back CD album so people know who the advertiser is, This tells the audience where they can purchase the album. I put the artists name in bold on the top of the magazine cover which is a normal convention of a music advertisement.
Overall the full combination of all the ancillary texts are very effective when all put together. They all have something to do with my music video including icons. What makes my products valuable is I have used no voyeuristic pleasure what so ever but the product is still successful. There are certain point to my product which could be made stronger such as the magazine advertisement which could have been made more eye catching and vibrant however I think my music video makes up for this in many ways. If I was to do this project again I would take more time out to do planning and do more unusual shots so it was a unique music video.