Evaluation

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

Clearly my video is aimed at women between the ages of 16 and 30. This video would be particularly liked by women who like artistic videos. The shots used, I hoped would appear like some of the photos from the influences, however the influences have all got an element of colour against the black and white.









This I hoped to create in my video, however the technology I used did not have the capabilities for me to do this. I felt that the video should still keep the softness and elemental, artistic quality of these images.

The music videos typically aimed at this audience usually show the emotions of the artist, for this audience the songs are about love, relationships and heart break. This is relateable to the audience, so the emotions shown in the video are immediately understood as they probably will have experienced them at some time or another. In order for these emotions to be shown within this video I used close-ups to capture the artists facial expressions.




Also how the artist is standing looking into the distance, as if she is remembering also shows the audience how the artist is feeling. This can be found in many female artists videos which have are about broken heartedness/longing.





I feel that the use of close-ups to demonstrate the artist's emotions is a typical feature of other music videos of this type, this is to allow not only promotion of the artist but also so that the audience can relate to the artist. This I felt was particularly well shown in Leona Lewis' song 'I Got You'.





These close-ups were off to one side of the frame and I thought this worked really well in showing the artist's emotions. These shots influenced how I placed Bethany in the shot when she was leaning on a tree.






The use of black and white in the majority of theshots gives the video a sense of softness as well as portraying the artist's emotions. Emotions are never black and white, and although the video is in black and white, the colour is more a grey scale reflecting the greyness of emotions, therefore reflecting the artist's emotions. The reason I decided to use black and white was because when watching Beyonce's video for 'Broken Hearted Girl' I really liked the emotion that was shown through this. It reflected the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. Within this video it also had a section of the video in colour.

(unfortunately the clip I wanted to be here to show the use of black, white and colour in Beyonce's song Broken Hearted Girl will not upload, however you can view the whole video in my influences post).

I liked this idea although thought that for my video I would like more that on section of colour. This is why I chose to put the chorus in colour, as the lyics for the chorus I felt would suit a more colourful portrayal.

(unfortunately the clip I wanted to be here to show the use of black, white and colour in my music video's chorus however it will not upload, you can view the whole video in my final video post).

The locations used I felt would fit this music video as the audience would be able to easily relate them as they can all be found in most towns. Also as mentioned earlier I wanted this video to look artistic. When watching Alesha Dixon's 'To Love Agian'. I really liked the locations used and they way they were shot and the with the sunlight.

(unfortunately the clip I wanted to be here to show the use of locations and the artistic shots included in Alesha DIxon's 'To Love Again will not upload, however you can view the whole video in my influences post).

I felt that these types of shots and locations were the feel that I wanted my video to have.

-------*-------


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








-------*-------



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










-------*-------


What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my feedback I was pleased they saw that the target audience for my video was women aged between 16 and 30. They said that this was because the artist was female and the emotions portrayed by the song and the visuals were more relateable for women than for men.
When putting the music video together, I decided not to have a male presence in the video as I felt this would show that the artist is trying to move forward. Instead I wanted to show tese fears and emotions within the visuals, linking then to the song. The coloured sectons of the video links to the lyrics, of wanting and this I thought should be in colour as its knowing what she wants, where as in the verses, its more thinking back to memories and how she is feeling, so felt this was better shown in black and white, meaning to show the grey areas of her emotions. The difference between black and white and coloured video, the feedback said that the audience felt they could see the difference in emotions between the two and that this worked well. The feedback said that the codes and conventions of this video led them to see a girl displaying a broken heart and many feedback comments were that they could relate to the emotions shown.
I went on to ask how he artist was porrayed in this vdeo and many of the same comments got made, that the artist although appearing confident was actually lonely and hearbroken, another comment made was that she is in love, but that she is unloved.
When asking about improvements that could be made to the video, there were several suggestions, some I agreed with and some that I didn't. One of the suggestions that I didn't agree with, although it was something it was something I considered when first coming up with ideas. This was that the artist should at some point be running to further develop the relationship between the visuals and the lyrics, however due to the speed of the song I did not feel that this would of looked right.
One suggestion that was made, now after finishing the video is something I would really of liked to of done, and this was to have a few flash backs to the artist and the boy, showing of memories, these would of been in faded shots. When initially deciding on ideas I decided againgst having a male presence in the video as I felt that the video should be about trying to move on, rather than focusing on the past. However, now having finished the video I agree with the suggestion that there should of been some memory type shots.
After asking about improvement points I asked about what they thought worked particularly well in the video and the response was that people liked the mix of black, white and colour within the vdeo and that the shots are artistic. One shot that was repeatedly mentioned as being a good shot was that of the close-up of Bethany leaning against the tree, from this the feedback said that the use of different locations but keeping an element of similarity between them worked well.
Finally, when asking for any other comments several metioned that the lip synching between the video and the audio track was good.


-------*-------


When doing my evaluation I used Adobe Premier Elements, Windows Movie Maker, a didital camera, a microphone.
Some aspects of my evaluation have had to be written onto the blog because although I have done audio tracks for them I could not work out how to get them onto the blog as just an audio file.


One other vital piece of media technology what I have used constantly over this entire task has been the blog. This has enabled me to upload my work (most of it anyways) so that it can all be stored in the same place with acces to anyone who wants to view it. Also allowed me to of kept track of what work I had done and what had to be done. As well as storing all my work in the order it was done.

I have enjoyed this media task, the challenges involved have meant that I have learnt alot and had a lot of fun along the way.

:-)

Influences for Website

The websites I looked at were all for female artsits with roughly the same audience as that of 'Bethany'. This was so that I could see what they decided was aprropriate and reach out to their audience.















Alesha Dixon


This website is aimed at a slightly younger audience than I would like mine to be however liked some aspects of this website.
This website has been kept simple using 2 main colours, pink and black. These keep the website looking professional yet feminine.
The image of the artists suggests her looking at the audience, she looks carefree, confident and as if she is having fun. This image looks as if it was a friend's image of her, rather than one that has been properly posed.
This website only has this page. The section in the centre of the page can be used to view 'news' stories such as a new album coming out etc, however does have other pages allowing you to view other information about the artist.
I like the position of the image, however would want the website to have pages in order for fans to find out more about the artist.

















Leona Lewis



This website is all in muted colours, the background and font being in black, white and grey. This means that the image pops out of the page, making the artist the central feature, even though she isnt in the middle of the page, your eye is immediately drawn to her face.
The image suggests that you are seeing into her soul, rather than her looking at us, its all about us looking at her. The use of a faded black and white image in the background, I think shows the artist's softer side as the main image suggest bold and confidence, where as the back ground image is almost as if we are getting a glimpse of the more emotional side of her.
This website does have different pages, I like this and the layout of these (in a table) suits the image and colour sceme well, however for my artist I would not want to set the links up like this as would prefer a softer layout.
















Taylor Swift


This website I feel suits the artist very well and portrays many of the emotions that are in her songs. This website does not have a main colour instead it has a main theme of nature.
The font used for the artist's name is 'twirly' and feminine, I think this is meant to be a reflection of how the artist wants to be perceived. The use of flowers and butterflies and are symbols of femininity. Orchids have the meaning of beauty and love, emotions that are shown in her songs and I think orchids were deliberately used because of this. The butterflies are Morpho butterflies and the meaning changed, is also an epithet of Aphrodite and Venus. Of course Aphrodite is the Greek Godess of love, beauty and sexuality and Venus was the Roman Godess of these qualities aswell. Again I believe this butterfly was used to further show the qualities of the artist.
The image of the artist is as the artist looking at you rather than you looking at her. Her make-up is kept natural, suggesting innocence however she looks seductrive and confident, for many of her audience this will be how they want to be perceived.
I like this website as it has links to other pages, yet they are inobtrusive to the page, yet clear enough for the page to be easiliy navigated. The use of a butterflies and flowers and the way the artist is dressed immediately allows the audience to see who she is... The video used on her home page is a more intimate look into her life, showing things that her audience would not usually get to view as they are not 'big' stories.















Beyonce


As it was one of Beyonce's songs that my artist used, I was particularly interested in the layout of this website.
The font used for the artist and album name are futuristic, however the pose and softness of photo has an air of innocence about it. The pose suggests innocence in the way she is covering herself, but the fact that she appears to me naked suggests confidence.
Again this website has different pages and the links to these seperate the banner at the top of the page from the photos, blog etc at the bottom. I like this layout as it is very clear to read and navigate around. The simplicity of the banner of the top of the page is something that hope to create in some form on my own website.

Feedback Questionnaire

These I asked people for when trying to get feedback from my music video.



1. What audience do you think this music video is for and why?

2. Do the codes and conventions used in this music video reflect the target audience? Why?

3. Do you think the use of colour and black and white work well together?

4. How do you think the artist is portrayed in the video?

5. Are there any parts of this music video that you think could be improved for any reason?

6. Are there any parts of this music video that you think work particularly well?

7. Any other comments

Artists Digipak

Artist's Website

Website Home Page

This is my home page for the artist's website, I wanted to keep it similar to the music video, I decided to do this by making the website black and white.

The image I used I wanted to be simply posed so that the artist is looking at the audience but so that the audience are not only looking at her but also seeing her. The top she is wearing has stripes on this meant that there is detail, but not enough to distract the audience from the artist herself.

The links I put at the top of the page this is because I feel it makes the site easy to navigate around and gives the page a look of professionalism. This also means that the links bar and image can remain in the same place on every page and the links bar will be clear enough to see so that it is accessible to the audience, but also so that any other objects that are put on the page are not obscurred.

As this is the home page of the website I decided to leave this page very simple with just the artist's picture, name and links so that the audience can instantly recognise whose site they are on and they can look at the information they want, in their own time instead of having in pushed upon them. The font I chose to use for Bethany was Lucida Handwriting this was because I wanted the writing to flow and I felt the best way to get this was throught the use of 'joined-up' writing with curves, rather than a harder more rigid font.

I created this page on Macromedia Dreamweaver. I kept the background white and created layers in order to add the image, text, bar and links. The image was the first thing that I added to the website. The image I edited in Adobe Photoshop, I changed the image to black and white and then edited out the background and any stray hairs that didn't look right in the photo. I decided to put the image to the left hand side of the page as she is looking over her right shoulder and so the image wouldnt work on the right hand side of the pagel. I also didn't want it in the centre, as I wanted to carry the layout through to every page so to have the image in the centre would allow very little space for any objects or would mean putting the objects on top of the artist's image and as the website is to promote the artist I felt this would not suit this aim. I had decided to put the links bar at the top of the page in order for the user to have easy navigation around the site. The font I used for the links I wanted to be similar to the font for Bethany, however not the same, so I kept the font 'joined-up' and put the writing white so that it can be seen against the grey and still keep with the blach and white colour scheme.

Photo's Page

Obviously the layout with the artist's image and link bar have remained the same, this is so that there is continuity throughout the website. The image constantly allows promotion through the image and the links bar means that the user can easily navigate around the site.

The photos were all edited using Adobe Photoshop and would be constantly updated depending on events the artist has attened/performed at. The would also change when ever the there was a new album/single release so that there is the referencing between the artist's work and what is on the website. The photos would be randomly put on the page, rather than in straight lines, this is because the target audience wouldn't want to see photos arranged in, what would appear to them as boring.

Other Pages of the Website

The other pages of the website include:

Music - this will have information about the artists up coming music, singles and albums, on this page there will also be the most recent music video.

Biography - on this page there will be information all about the artist's life.

Events - this page will have information about any concerts and festivals the artist will be perfoming at. Also any appearances they will be at.

Lyrics - this page will mean that the audience will be able to access the lyrics to the artist's songs.

All these pages will be updated regularly to keep the audience informed.

Also as artist's often change their look etc, for different albums songs the layout and colour scheme will change depending on the release of new music etc.

If I had the capabilities I would like to have a small media player at the top of each page that plays about 3 of the artist's most recent songs.

Change of Ideas

Due to the weather and access to locations, I decided to change the locations that I would shoot my video in. The locations I plan to use are all within Cobham, Surrey. I really wanted to keep some kind of water in the video as it suggests tranquility, but can also be strong/powerful.

These were all some possibilities of the locations I would use in Cobham.

Cobham Mill:

River:

Streets:

Pond:

Other shots:

Final Music Video