Digipak

I have finished by digipak, I have made more changes since the last draft. I have changed the photo on the fan message page and I have included credits.

Magazine Advert Portrait

This is my portrait magazine advert, I have changed it since the last draft. I have changed the hue and saturation in order to not have such a vibrant pink as this made it not as realistic. 

 

The purpose for this layout, is to put up on billboards such as the one above. This makes it clear to the target audience that Pixie has a new album and is ready to buy in shops and download on iTunes. As this is a portrait version, it is more suitable to put on bus stops. This links in well with my target audience, as many of them use a bus on a daily basis, which means that I will have my magazine adverts being advertised in the correct locations which will encourage in sales of the album either in store or online. What also makes the audience more attracting to the billboard is that is follows the layout of the landscape version, however includes two more pictures of the artist and reviews from successful magazines.

Magazine Advert Landscape

This is my landscape magazine advert, I have changed it since the last draft. I have changed the hue and saturation in order to not have such a vibrant pink as this made it not as realistic.

 

The purpose for this layout, is to put up on big billboards such as the one above. This makes it clear to the target audience that Pixie has a new album and is ready to buy in shops and download on iTunes. As this is a landscape billboard it is suitable for many advertisments, more examples can be on the side of a bus or underground. The fact that I have used vibrant colours grabs the target audiences attention straight away, even if they aren't part of the target audience. This is good as it means that the advertisment is working and people are more likely to be interested in either buying or downloading the album as when the target audience see the advertisment the first thing that grabs their attention is the picture of Pixie.

Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback from Juliana Mariz on Vimeo.

I collected audience feedback from a male target audience, as I thought it would be useful to hear a male attitude towards my final products.

Before & After - Digipak

Here you can clearly see the transformation from my first draft to my final product on both portrait and landscape. 

Before & After Magazine Advert

Here you can clearly see the transformation from my first draft to my final product on both portrait and landscape. 

Before & After Music Video

Before & After from Juliana Mariz on Vimeo.

I have put together my first draft and my final music video, this clearly shows what improvements I made to my music video.

Fast Color Corrector

Fast Color Corrector from Juliana Mariz on Vimeo.

I have created a camstudio video of me color correcting my music video, this shows my skills of changing various clips into a more professional looking clip. For example there were a few clips which were yellow due to lighting and I used the fast color corrector and changed the yellow to a very light pink which made the lights stand out and not look to washed away, it made it more appealing.

RGB Curves On My Music Video

RGB Curves from Juliana Mariz on Vimeo.

I have created a camstudio video of me color correcting my music video using RGB Curves, this shows my skills of changing various clips into a more professional looking clip. I used this tool on most of my clips to improve the colour balance of the red, blue and greens. This improved clips which looked washed away and at a poor quality.

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

Music Video

Music videos today are completely different to what they were a few years back. Many of them nowadays challenge and break the rules of what a music video should typically look like. This is due to the change of technology, were people are now able to upload videos onto YouTube and watch videos from any year and comment on them. Whereas before you’d only be able to watch music videos on television on shows such as ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘MTV’ and you wouldn’t be able to choose the song, it would just play and most likely only be able to watch the video once in a while.

The genre of a music video is a problematic area. Some music videos are defined by the artist itself and others buy the type of music. The music video I created is of the pop genre, in order for it to be a successful music video I have followed some of the conventions of a successful music video. Andrew Goodwin’s theory has been applied in my music video a number of times, through the use of close ups and a relationship between lyrics and visuals.  The song I chose to do for my music video is a song by Pixie Lott – ‘All About Tonight’; it is a quite upbeat and fast song. Therefore when editing the video I ensured that the pace was compatible with the visuals consequently each cut I made was to the beat of the song in order for it to encourage a fluid viewer experience. I have included a dance routine in my music video and due to the routine being of a fast pace this also fitted in well with the video. David Buckingham says that “Genre is not simply given by the culture; rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change”. I believe that my music video supports past examples, especially the original music video. This is due to the fact that the dance routine used in my music video was implemented using the original music video.

Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative, as it is important in their role of advertising. Due to my music video being a mixture of narrative and performance it makes it easier for the audience to watch the video over and over without losing interest. My artist acts both as a narrator and a participant, this helps to increase the authenticity however the lip sync and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. This is clearly highlighted through numerous close ups of my artist miming to camera, this also makes the music video appear more real to the audience.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals, as the lyrics sang by my artist are mimicked in the video, an example of this is ‘I bought a new pair of shoes’, my artist is seen walking down the stairs in white stilettos and straight after there is a mid-shot of her walking down the road as the lyrics ‘I got a new attitude when I walk’ is sang. Another example is ‘I’m going out with the girls’; there is a shot which clearly highlights two girls ready to go out. Relationship between music and visuals is also applied as you can see there is a dance performance for the chorus which fits in well with the beat of the song.

Andrew Goodwin also states that music videos might also be used to amplify emotions and moods, without completely illustrating the song. I believe this applies to my video as it highlights freedom and happiness. This is clearly illustrated throughout the music video through various types of shots of the main artist laughing with her friends. There is a direct gaze into the artist’s life, as you see her getting ready as any typical teenager would do. This is highlighted with her putting on makeup, doing her hair and putting on jewellery

Narrative in songs is rarely complete, they are more fragmented. My music video follow an episodic narrative as it is a story told in a non linear manner. The visuals shown are of my artist getting ready heading towards a night out, she is seen putting on various types of jewellery and make up, and styling her hair with her friend.  Then there is a performance which then goes back to my artist getting ready. My music video is visualized in an order of events. By not following a linear narrative, encourages the audience with desire to see it again if they missed some things when viewing it the first time. A quote which I thought backed up my music video is of Steve Archer (2004) - “Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be a part of the story, acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip-synch close-up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it.”

Roland Barthes theory of the Semantic code is also applied to the music video as the audience see my artist with bright colourful lips which connotates fun and love as expressed in the lyrics “Ready to show all the boys what I got I'm letting go of the hurt”.

Vladimir Propp argued that narratives always have certain character types who perform certain actions. Therefore he believed that most music videos feature stock characters, this applies to my music video as my artist is shown to be a stereotypical teenager wanting to go out with her friends and be in complete different world. My main artist has bright blonde hair and she wears bright make up to stand out. She has a few changes of clothes throughout the video which in every one has different shoes also. The use of changing the outfits a few times link in well with the narrative.

“A high degree of narrative closure”, Pam Cook’s theory doesn’t apply much to my music video as my narrative is quite basic and real, for example most teenagers meet up with their friends to get ready to go out and they go partying etc. and this is what my music video is all about, it’s all about having fun with friends and letting your hair down for the night.

Laura Mulvey’s theory of the narrative being delivered through the eyes of a male is also applied throughout my music video with the variety of close ups used to emphasise my artist, this is clearly shown on close ups of my artists face highlighting her eyes and lips which stand out from her blonde hair.

The camera movement used in my music video accompany the performer, especially outside where the audience can see her walking with her friends. Another place where the camera movement is visible is in some of the clips where my performers are dancing. They say that music videos have aesthetics of a TV commercial, I believe that my music video is quite similar due to the fact that it includes lots of close ups and different types of lighting being used most prominently for the star’s face.

The most common form of editing in music videos is fast cut montage; I have edited my music video to have fast cuts which go to the beat of the song making it impossible for the viewer to see everything. My music video also consists of colourisation, I have edited many of my clips by adding a tint of pink and adjust the levels in order for the clip to have more colour and not seem washed away.

Stuart Hall stressed the role of social positioning in the interpretation of mass media texts by different social groups. The encoded message in the music video was illustrated through costumes and make up, when showing my music video to my target audience they decoded the message successfully as the message being put across was to have fun. This was a dominant reading.

My music video fits in well typical pop music videos, due to the footage throughout; the colours used and the props. For example a typical pop video will include bright colours to catch the audience’s eye and my artist is in a black room and the audience can clearly see her due to the costumes being so bright against black

Magazine Advert

Similarly to my music video, my magazine advert was also important to appeal to the target audience meaning that the advert had to catch their eye and be convinced/persuaded into buying the album. I have used a three images of my main artist, the main image is a mid shot of my artist and I have made it black and white which is positioned at the centre of the page, just behind the main image on either side there is two other pictures of the artist which is faded behind the main image in pink. I have stuck to the house colour of pink and white for both magazine advert and Digipak, as both products are consistent means the products are easily identified within the genre and the audience. I created two magazine adverts, one being portrait and the other being landscape, this allows me to be able to have the magazine advert being advertised in various places. For example the portrait version can be on a bus stop advert and the landscape version on a landscape billboard. On the portrait magazine advert it features five-star ratings and quotes such as: “Best Album Ever” and “Amazingly Talented” by popular magazines such as Top of the Pops and Sugar, by having these magazines gives a the audience the feel that the album is a success as a popular magazine is advertising it. I have used a big bold font to on my magazine advert in order for it to stand out easily, the artists name is written in white on a pink background so it stands out from the rest of the text on the page. On the portrait version I have included a ‘Available on iTunes’ logo which also helps to advertise the album as many people nowadays tend to buy albums through iTunes in order to have them on their phones so they can listen to it whenever and wherever. On my landscape magazine advert I have only included one image of my artist which is the same image as I used on the portrait but close up, this brings more attention to the magazine advert as it can be clearly identified by the audience.

Digipak

Equally the Digipak is just as important as it should reflect the artist’s personality and attitudes, therefore many close ups of the artist on the digipak is needed to highlight this. I have used close ups for the front and back page of the Digipak as this will attract the audiences eye straight away when walking past as they will be able identify who it is, this is also due to the consistency of colours used as they also follow the same colour scheme as the magazine advert. The artists name is written clearly at the bottom with a very feminine font which includes hearts on the ‘I’ instead of a dot. The name of the album is written just beneath it in a clear bold font. Both of these fonts have been used consistently throughout the magazine advert and the Digipak. I have also included a page which the target audience can contact Pixie, I have used logos such as Instagram, twitter and Facebook because in today’s generation everyone follows these social networking sites to find out the latest gossip. A typical pop genre Digipak includes a message to fans from the artist, I have also included this. Instead of referring to my artists fans as ‘fans’, I have referred to them as ‘Little Pixies’, this is similar to artists such as Justin Bieber, and he refers to his fans as ‘Beliebers’. On the back page I have included all the copyright details which are typically found, along with the track list and a barcode, by including all these conventions in my Digipak allows my product to look as professional and as close to a real Digipak.

As Richard Dyer quoted “a star is an image constructed from a range of materials”, both my digipak, magazine advert and music video highlight the star image; the digipak includes the singles being released on the album and the image of the star, the magazine advert also includes the name of the album and an images of the star, and finally the music video highlights scenes from a ‘live’ performance.

Technology has changed the conventions of music videos, this is because they are more affordable allowing us to do anything with them. I had access to a digital SLR camera which allowed me to film wherever as it was portable. Also I was able to review footage to make sure that it was of a high quality and that I had captured everything I wanted to. Some of my footage was shot outside as it was getting quite dark, these cameras allowed me to shoot with low light and still have a high quality outcome.  

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

When creating my music video, magazine advert and digipak I ensured I followed a ‘house style’ so that my products will be easily identified by its target audience which means that my products will be successful as they would have caught the audience’s eye.

My music video has the purpose to entertain its audience by highlighting freedom and happiness throughout, meaning not sitting around wasting time but living life to the maximum. This brings a good and energetic vibe towards my music video, due to the music also being of a fast tempo. The fast tempo throughout the music video is highlighted through the editing; each cut made in the video has been cut to the beat of the song making the music video look more interesting and appeal to the target audience. This also helps to represent happiness and freedom as its constant cuts moving on. The artist I chose will help to be successful as she is young and has great talent in both acting and dancing, this will help make sales and promote the album.

I believe that my music video is successful as I planned before shooting which enabled me to make sure I had enough footage that I could use. I also practised shooting before shooting on the day; this enabled me to have a steady hand when shooting with the steady cam. Lip syncing was essential in my music video as many shots are of my artist singing to camera; therefore I had to edit my clips in order for the lip sync to match the original soundtrack. The visuals shown on my video are of a high quality which also contain effects to make the footage stand out even more. When watching my music video, as it is of a pop genre it does make the audience wants to dance as there is an upbeat fast pace tempo encouraging the audience. To conclude, my music video follows the conventions of a typical pop music video, therefore I believe my video is fit for purpose and would be successful.

The purpose of the magazine advert is to promote the music videos album and the artist through her image. I believe my magazine advert represents the artist’s image and highlights happiness as expressed in the music video as the images used are of the artist happily smiling with a good atmosphere. Equally the colours used also represent this, initially I was going for a gold and black theme however I then noticed that this didn’t necessarily fit in well with the pop genre, therefore changed the colours to a more girly and feminine colour; pink. I strongly believe that pink was the right colour to use as my music video is mainly aimed at girls and pink tends to be a more feminist colour. I made my artist black and white as I believed that by already having brightly coloured text to attract the audience, the image would stand out more if it was in dull colours. I have also included reviews relevant to the genre, such as ‘Top of the Pops’, by having reviews encourages the audience to buy the album as ‘Top of the Pops’ is well known the audience already.

The digipak I created also maintains to portray the pink house style with a variety of photos of my artist either in black and white or in pink. The name of my album ‘Y.F.H – Young Foolish Happy’ reinforces my theme of happiness – as teenagers should be living life and not holding back onto grudges etc. Each page of the digipak features a type of line, this is either two lines crossed over each other or either two lines next to each other, and I have included these as a unique touch to each page which is consistent throughout.  

All three of my products have a symbolic relationship in common which relates to one another, this is due to the fonts being used throughout and the colour scheme. I have used pink a lot, which allows the audience to distinguish between other pop magazine adverts and digipak and even music videos. This is because my music video also has a colour scheme of pink ranging from the costumes and make up worn and the colour corrections on each clip.

Transcript: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Gathering audience feedback was a fundamental element of my production process, as it allowed me to see what I was doing and what I need to improve in order for my products to be at the best of my ability and as successful as possible. It also ensured that I was creating a product that would successfully meet the needs and expectations of my target audience.

The target audience for my products are females aged 15-25; there is also a secondary audience of males aged 17-25 as there are some male pop listeners. My artist ‘Pixie’ is a young teenage girl living life, I have made her image happy by making sure she is seen always smiling or laughing, I applied an outer glow to some of my images which made the images appear more innocent but lively due to her facial expressions i.e. smiling.

I made sure to gather audience feedback for my products throughout the project, as this would allow me to make necessary changes which would benefit me as I would be able to improve and make the products as professional as possible. I generated this feedback in various ways, I asked the people who was going to be in my music video to give me feedback on what they thought and any ideas they think would be better. I also created a survey using Survey Monkey, which allowed me to write my own questions and then share with whoever I liked. I was able to ask different types of questions such as open and closed and leading questions. I shared my survey with my Facebook friends, I received over 65 surveys. Examples of questions I included are; “Does the editing in my music video fit in well with the beat of the song? If you can see anything that would need to be improved, please explain” and “How would you rate the different aspects of my music video?” By asking these questions guaranteed that my target audience would give me accurate feedback to my music video which would allow me to see if it is successful or not.

I found that some feedback was more effective than others, for example asking a media student for feedback was more effective as they knew exactly what type of feedback would be effective; colour correcting was a key feedback from media students. A question which I got a variety of answers was ‘Did you understand the narrative of my music video? In your opinion what do you think the narrative is?, after asking this question I realised that some people may not understand the question as I was receiving mixed responses. For example some people understood that the question meant what did narrative mean, so they’d give me a definition ‘Narrative is the story of the music video, what you were trying to get the audience to understand’, this was a good response however it didn’t answer what I wanted to know but highlights that the person researched what it meant. Another response was ‘I don’t know’, this may be due to some people not actually knowing what narrative meant.  However overall most of the respondents understood the narrative of my music video and even over complicated it by trying to explain a story and applying the lyrics to it as well.

When asking for improvements on my music video I received quite a few mixed responses, some said that I should improve the lighting and contrast, miming and the transitions was too quick into the next shot. I believed that this was successful feedback on improvements as many people mentioned the same thing, I have improved my music video and followed the advice from the feedback given and applied it.

The most positive feedback that I received was my editing; as it was to the beat of the song and the shots weren’t on screen for too long, they kept cutting back and forth this is typically found in music videos which make them a lot more interesting to watch.  My different type’s camera shots were also another strong element of feedback from my target audience.

By asking quantitive and qualitative questions along with opinions allowed me to receive a variety of responses, which allowed me to improve my products in order to fit the genre appropriately. By gathering feedback online through a survey allowed me to get a lot of responses whereas if I was to interview people I wouldn’t have received as many improvements. For my survey I received over 65 responses, this for me was beneficial as I was given appropriate feedback which I then applied to my music video. Therefore in my opinion the more people you ask for feedback the more improvements you get which will help improve. I went through all my responses and noted down which improvements were suggested the most, for example colour correcting.

I organised a focus group with media students to gather feedback on my magazine advert and digipak, I did this by printing out my products and then filming the conversation the group were having were they talked about the elements they liked and what needed improving. The focus group was successful as they gave honest improvements and suggestions, and they were able to expand on their ideas, whereas on the survey there was a word account which didn’t allow the respondent to reply more than a certain number of characters.  I also went round asking people for feedback, I did this by asking them questions related to all 3 of my products. I found that by asking the questions myself and letting them answer the question allows them to develop more on their answer as there isn’t a limited amount. I find that this type of way of gathering feedback is a lot more successful than just gathering audience feedback through surveys and questionnaires.

All the feedback received helped me make certain decisions on all my products. For example in my magazine advert, having the black and gold colour scheme didn’t fit in well with the genre, therefore I had to come up with another house colour to follow. Feedback has also effected the audience’s interpretation of decoding the messages behind everything; in my survey it is clear that the audience have understood my message of my music video of having fun. 

In conclusion after carrying out different ways of gathering feedback I have learnt that a focus group with media students is more effective than having a survey which can be for anyone to complete. This because I noticed in my feedback which ones had the understanding of the project and tools for improvements. Whereas with a no media student they would just assume that everything is good. For example a non media student wouldn’t pick up on colour correction. When creating a survey, I think it would be more appropriate to have a question such as ‘Are you a media student?’, as this would enable us to distinguish responses which would be more beneficial as there would be advanced improvements such as contrast and lighting of the videos. Finally, I was open to feedback; I made as many improvements as I could, in order to have a successful product.