Evaluation

A2 Advanced Portfolio

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

Music video• In the music video we mostly stuck to the conventions of a real R&B music video. The sequence uses a non

linear narrative as it does not have a clear beginning, middle and end. The video is completely style over substance and has no initial depth to it. This is common of R&B videos as the focus is often not on the storyline but on the artist themselves coming across as a sex symbol and their materialistic goods.

As you can see from these two shots, our music video (right) is very similar to the ways in which a real R&B music video works because in the real video (left) the performer is seen lay on stacks of Louis Vuitton luggage

which is considered a materialistic good. This shows how they are bragging about their wealth and things they have and our video incorporates elements of that as she is carrying a bag from Vivienne Westwood,

another designer brand.

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

Music Video• Our video also uses the conventions of real media texts because it uses very slow paced editing. There are

a lot of long takes and dissolve/fade shot transitions, this works parallel with the music as the song is very slow and emotional.

• When planning our video, we decided to keep it close to the original music video for song by Mariah Carey. The real video is set on a beach in Malibu but however we did not have the resources to do this and therefore took certain elements of the video and placed them in a different setting, in our case a woodland area. This is more reflecting of English culture and gives a British spin to the video. we imitated several shots from the real music video in order to make the final product look more professional and realistic.

Mariah Carey – H.A.T.E.U. (2009) Our product.

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

Music Video• Although we mostly stuck to the conventions, we still challenged them in various ways, first of all we set

the video in a woodland area that is not typically traditional of R&B videos as they are usually set somewhere more glamorous such as on the beach, like mentioned on the previous slide. This makes the video more appealing to an English market as they can relate to this a lot more than a glamorous Californian beach.

• Another way we broke a convention is that we kept the singer covered up in clothes all through the video. This breaks the conventions because R&B singers usually have a lack of clothing to portray a sexualised image of themselves in order to target a male fan base as well as a female one., although this is highly stereotypical. In our video we did not portray a promiscuous image because we felt that it was inappropriate as we wanted to target a much wider audience including children, who may find it uncomfortable. It also shows how the performer is different from the typical R&B singer, suggesting she want to be taken seriously for her music rather than just her looks. This gives her an alternative edge that sets her apart from the stereotypical R&B singer.

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

Print Work• With our print work we again mostly followed the conventions of a real media product. We used an image

of the performer on the front cover and the back of the CD and the promotional material. This is because we wanted people to know who our artist was and establish her face amongst the urban music scene. With female R&B singer’s their CD cases usually appear very clean and elegant and take advantage of the space on the page. We also did this by using the ‘white space’ very carefully to our advantage. The white colours on the images we used fit into the white background to create an unusual effect, combined with the black text the page has a black and white colour scheme which is very traditional and basic yet sophisticated. the parental advisory label shows that the CD contains explicit material which is common of music in this genre. It giver the performer an aggressive edge and sets her apart from the ‘girl next door’ image a lot of pop stars have these days.

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

Print Work

These titles show the name of the performer and the name of the album. As you can see, the handwritten effect of our font is similar to that on the real media product.

The pose on this album cover was the inspiration for our cover. We felt it had a very light and elegant feel however we decided to crop ours down in order to draw less attention towards her body and more towards her face.

We decided to play around with the colours on the image in order to give off a certain effect. In this case we played around with the exposure on contrast to make the colours stand out more, giving our model a more golden and tanned appearance.

This label is often featured on a lot of albums. It shows the audience what is inside the package and targets them by advertising songs that are well known so that they sell the CD more effectively.

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

Editing• The editing in our video is very in-line with the rhythm and tone of the accompanying song. The long takes show a sense of

slowness and focus towards the performer. Because the camera is focused on the singer for a slightly lengthy period of time, we see how she is putting emotion into the performance and as it is not rushed and fast is allows us to listen to the lyrics of the song more without being distracted by all the various shot springing up from all over the place.

• The shot transitions are also very slow. We use several dissolves and fades and there are lots of black screens in between the shots that seem to move in and out very slowly. This was not originally what we intended to do however we found that it looked very effective and added a sense of slowness and darkness to the video. The dark screens connect with the song to show how bleak and depressing the singers life is at this post breakup stage of her relationship which she is talking about in the song. The lyrics tell of how she is feeling various emotions and she can feel happy (when she appears on screen) and she can go very upset and sad (black screens) until eventually she comes to terms with the relationship at the end of the song and the screen does a fade but this time to white instead, showing a more happier tone.

• When editing one of the main issues that we had to overcome was synchronising the sound so that it matched the actions on screen. When researching various real music videos we saw that even they did not always have their sound in synch. This made us feel a lot more comfortable with this as it is a very hard thing to do, however I think we pulled it off very effectively and although it is not always perfect. It is still mostly in synch.

• When at the end of the chorus when the performer hits a high note, we dissolve various shots into one another which works very well in line with the song, this is similar to the real music video of this song as that too also uses a sequence like this.

• In the print work we used Adobe Photoshop to edit all of our material. We used the exposure and contrast tool in order to make our images appear more colourful and bright. This made the overall product appear more professional and realistic. We also used various effects on the texts like drop shadows and glows, this made the product look more different from the norm and also made it appear very original.

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

Cinematography • We used lots of different types of camera techniques in order to channel different meanings in our text. Fist of all, the use of

close ups on the performers face show the emotion she is channelling during the song. It also establishes a connection with the audience as is allows them to know what she looks like, therefore when they hear the song on the radio etc they will know who it is singing.

• The mixture of long shots, medium shots and close ups offer variety in the video and stop it from becoming to similar and ‘boring’. They offer different views of the performer which allows the audience to see what she is wearing etc. they also go in line with the music and make it all seem to flow and fall in place.

• There are a mixture of high angle and low angle shots that are used to simulate the different emotions she is feeling. The high angle shots look down on her and make her appear sad and down and the low angle shots look up at her making her appear superior and strong, showing that she is feeling happy. There is also a tilt used in the video when the performer twirls around in rhythm to the music. This works like a ‘glam shot’ in which the camera pans down in order to show off the performers attire.

•In the print work we used a medium shot of the performer so that we can get a good view of her expression but also get a good view of her posture and outfit. On the promotional poster we used a long shot so we could get a view of her full body. This also looked better as the poster was A4 and used length ways so her body fir directly down the middle.

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

Mise-en-scene• The mise scene in the music video is very laid back and quiet. There is nothing busy and attention grabbing about it as we

wanted all the focus to be on the performer. It is very still which fits perfectly with the genre of the song and the tempo. The setting is also very pretty as it is a woodland area in the winter/autumn months therefore there is a lot of golden colours with the leaves falling off the trees etc. the video was also filmed at dusk hours which gave the quality of image a golden glow. We decided to take advantage of this time of day because we had limited technology etc therefore this form of natural lighting was probably the best thing we could use in order to portray a warm feel that would work in line with the slow song.

• The fact that the performer is wearing various designer clothes shows that there is a very superficial aspect to the video because there is no actual need to wear these clothes. This is common of R&B music videos and looks very realistic.

• The part of the video where the performer is seen in a tunnel of trees was very carefully picked out as it had a very nostalgic look to it, also the light snow that was on the ground made it look very pretty and elegant.

• In the print work we decided to use a direct mode of address as it establishes a connection with the audience and invited them into the CD.

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

• The combination of our main product, CD case and a digi-pack, worked well in representing a well planned project that looks professional and authentic.

• In our ancillary texts, we stuck to the same colour scheme, as in our posters and music video; we thought this gave our product a professional overall look. In our colour scheme we use very light shades of creams and pinks, along with black writing, which makes the singers name stand out. We thought minimal colour would be best, as it created a softer and gentle effect, which was also created by our music video. Also using very neutral colours, we thought, made our pieces look more aesthetically pleasing.

• Although our piece was well planned out, and we believe that our pieces all fit together. In our music video, the singer appears to be vulnerable and sad, these emotions are not reflected on the CD cover, and our singer appears to look like a stereotypical ‘diva.’ The idea of vulnerability which is portrayed through the video is not present in the CD cover. However this is a generic convention of most artists in the RnB genre, they will portray certain emotions in certain songs and videos, it is merely acting put on by the artist, in order to make their song successful.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• Focus Group• The focus group enabled us to get a clear idea on how to be creative in order to achieve a successful

music video. By choosing the same artist but different tempos (slow, medium and high) we got to establish certain conventions of each tempo in order to convey realism for each. For example if we were to create a fast tempo music video the editing for this video product would have been really fast and synchronous to the images that appeared on screen. As we received positive feedback from our focus group we were able to get the key information that we needed in order to make our video product target the correct audience of early teenagers to late thirties and also focus on certain aspects and elements in order to make a successful product and apply the certain RnB conventions.

• Final Product• The feedback that we have received for our music video was positive. We obeyed to certain RnB

conventions such as style over substance: this is shown through the costume that our performer is wearing and the red Vivienne Westwood bag that is shown in the opening. The song is a slow tempo and therefore the editing matches this. Our audience who we showed this music video too commented on this and said that it was a success. From our feedback we have found that we were successful with our final product as we catered to certain RnB stylistic conventions and kept with the tone and mood of the song. We also discovered that our print ads were very well created in order to give off a slow and dreamy vibe. This is why we decided to use white as the colour represents innocence.