The Final Products.

Music Video

Digipak

Poster/Magazine Advert

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

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After asking my classmates what their first impressions are after watching the music video, I was quite happy with the response because they were all positive. One of them said that they think I successfully conveyed the genre of the music video, another said that the fast edits made it look very RnB and one also commented on the direction that Alice had been given, especially with the RnB feisty attitude. From these responses, it taught me that I have done a good job on creating a music video, which is typically RnB, as well as directed Alice in a way to allow her to be good at the RnB attitude, which many existing videos contain.

The next question I asked my classmates was the bits they liked the most which was again surprising answers they came back with. One person referred to the part where I cut one continuous shot of Alice up on the beat, and then zoomed in on a few of the short shots which made it look like lots of small shots which kept the pace of the music video. One other of my classmates also agreed that it worked well to cut the music video to the beat of the music. Another person suggested that they liked the colouring of black and white which also changed to the beat of the song because they liked that it kept the video interesting. Another shot which was particularly popular with all class mates was the CCTV style shot where there was a shot of a camera, then a black and white graded shot of Alice looking up at the camera, almost a shot reverse shot clip which they all agreed worked really well. From this question, I was able to understand smaller details which worked well, and bits which were particularly effective and therefore were a successful hit from the customer or target markets point of view.

I also asked the question of what the group actually thought the music video was about, or what was being represented. This question was aimed to find out exactly what they understood about the music video alongside the audio. One person suggested that the song was about a guy which the singer thought was particularly attractive and that the music video could have been improved with a male actor in the video. This is something that I had originally planned to include, however after reviewing the footage and editing the male lead into the video, it began to be confusing with narrative as well as performance. Another person suggested that it could work well if I had used two dancers either side of Alice in a few wider shots which was something that I hadn’t actually considered, however this could have worked well.

My next question was asking them how successfully I had managed to make the music video look conventionally RnB. The whole group agreed that I had made my music video look conventional in the RnB sense, and one person said that I had gone into a lot of detail with mise en scene with the attention to detail in Alice’s costume, and locations for Alice to act in. One other classmate suggested that the colouring I had used was good, however suggested that some more darker and grungy colours could have worked better with the genre and typical RnB music video. Another person suggested a few more locations could have been used, however I do think that the settings I had used were sufficient for the music video.

My penultimate question was any other improvements which I could have done to make the music video better, and to this I received some good advice. One of my classmates suggested some more full body shots rather than close ups a lot of the time, which I agree would have made the success of my music video better. One also reiterated the point of backing dancers would have worked well, and that the extreme close ups worked well but there needed to be more of them. Overall, I was in agreement with these minor improvements. There were a few slight glitches with some editing such as a shot where a studio light could have been seen in the corner of a shot, as well as the issue which I was aware of that my reflection could occasionally be seen in Alice’s sunglasses. These are all issues which I would have resolved had I not lost the footage when my hard drive broke, and had to use my first draft as my final video, however these issues are only minor, and did not matter too much.

My final question was some final thoughts of the video overall which were again all very positive which I was happy about. Words were used such as Very good and successful which all helped me to understand that the music video worked well overall from an audience point of view. One of the classmates said how it was clear that different styles of RnB were conveyed well and that it was clear that a lot of research had gone into the final music video. One person also mentioned that it was clear that I also do photography because the level of success with the shot framing and photography for the ancillary texts were well shot.

Overall, I have learnt from my audience feedback that there are minor details which I needed to have tightened and there were some suggestions which could of helped improve my music video such as including some dancers and a male actor, however overall, the music video was a good success and that it also fits with the RnB genre very well.

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

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

Connotations for my music video

A Connotation is a translated message which the producer would like the audience to read through different signs and signifiers. For example, If there was a girl dressed in black (Denotation), the connotation of this could be symbolising death, bad or evil, however we read this as the denotation with the connotation in mind.
Within my music video, I believe that I have used this media term quite a lot in translating the message to the audience. For example, the typical use of my brick wall in a lot of my shots connotes the whole RnB theme of the 'streets' where it may not be very wealthy, however Alice looks wealthy, hence the contrast.

 Another connotation which is apparent is the beauty of Alice constantly, which emplies that although she is singing about a boy which is extra good looking but not right for her, that she is quite used to turning men away, which actually gives a different attitude to the performer, and also an attitude for young aspiring girls to have.

I have also chosen to connote a different type of outfit style with Alice wearing not the total revealing clothing like many RnB, but to use more covered up clothing, in the hope to appeal to more of a younger audience without it being to close to the line.

Feedback!

In todays class, I set up a video, and then made my class mates watch my music video. I then prepared a list of questions to ask them in relation to my music video, and how the poster and digipak relate to the video.

From the response I got from them, it was apparent that although my music video is good, and that it works well under the genre conventions, there were a few mistakes which I was already aware of. Overall, the feedback was very positive.