Evaluation Question No. 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used technology from the very start of the project. Before choosing our final song, we used the internet (Google) to research other music genres such as hip hop, pop, indie etc and decided to look at a few songs and videos (YouTube) within the genre to listen to the beats and look at their “traditional” music video ideas.
For example: RnB songs= slow cuts, lots of close ups and a narrative
Hip Hop songs= fast cuts, no narrative and lots of dancing

After picking our genre (Soul/ Pop) and looking at a popular artist (Adele) we decided to look at a few of her music videos to note down specific techniques that her directors have used. (wide range of close ups, no narratives and slow pace editing)

Other uses of the internet (Mostly Google and YouTube):
• To look up Adele’s background information and achievements
• Meaning behind “Set Fire to The Rain” lyrics- so we could analyse them and give us ideas for our own video
• Location research
• Costume research
• Examples of other artist’s digi pak and posters
By using the internet, it has enabled us to take inspiration from other artists and create our own unique ideas.

•Hand held camera:
We were given a hand held camera which was useful to us, due to the fact that it’s small, lightweight and easy to carry around, making it possible for the group to film in different locations and achieve great shots.
Even though the camera was small, it also had “Auto Focus” built in. This was helpful as it focused on what we wanted it to focus on, and make the background blurry, adding an interesting effect and less hassle in editing the clips on the computer later. The only disadvantage is that sometimes the quality can be bad.

•Professional Cameras:
We had the chance to record in the Media Studio and use the professional cameras, which gave us the advantage of filming scenes with a great and better quality than the handheld camera. We used all three cameras so we could get a wide range of shots from different angles and shots itself (Close ups, extreme close-ups, wide angles).

•Control Panels:
We also got the chance to experiment with the control panel aswell. We were able to add effects and switch from camera to camera while shooting, this also made it easier for us when editing the final clips, as they have already been edited using the control panel.

•SLR Camera:
Using an SLR Camera for our photo shoot (album cover and poster), we were able to have an outstanding quality of pictures that we could use for our digi pak and poster. Most, if not, all digi paks and posters are taken with a professional camera to achieve the high quality and blurred backgrounds. We wanted our print based work to look as professional as other artists, therefore we decided to use an SLR. We did achieve the blurred and high quality images for our final print based work making them look almost professional.

•Final Cut Pro:
We used a program called “Final Cut Pro” on the Apple Mac to edit our music video.Because we had a little over 180 clips, it was hard for us to find the best clips, we therefore decided to make three separate folders for each performer, and a separate folder for outside scenes. By having folders, it has helped us become organized making it easier to find all the good clips.
The most important use of Final Cut Pro was editing the actual clips and putting them together.We used the razor tool to cut down all the clips to make room for other ones. The pace of editing was slower as the song has a slow beat and also added effects such as slow motions to make it more interesting. We didn’t add a lot of effects as we wanted it to reflect to Adele’s previous music videos, which hardly has any effects other than slow motions. Fades were then added in between some of the clips to make a smoother transition, however, being influenced by other artists music video, we saw that they don’t have smooth transitions, however it just cuts to the next clip straight away- this is what we did in some clips when the beat of the song drops and become faster than the rest.

•Adobe Photoshop:
When making the CD panels and the magazine, we used a program called “Adobe Photoshop”. This software allows people to create and edit images to a professional standard. Using the best four pictures from our “photoshoot” we edited each one of them and set their saturation, brightness and contrasts to make them more appealing to the eyes. There are a lot of tools on Photoshop that we used to make it look more interesting, such as the crop tool, lasso tool, feathering tool etc..
After editing the pictures, we then added texts on them for more information about the CD and other information about the artist. All the work on Photoshop has helped our print based work look more professional.

•A website called Blogger helped us to gain more feedback from our teachers and other students about our video and posts. We upload posts about our stage-by-stage work leading up to our final piece. With this being open to our teachers, we are able to edit our posts to make them more detailed, gaining us a higher mark.

• We used a program called "Preview" on the computers to print screen important pages, so we could put them on the blog and explain what and how we are editing everything.

Evaluation Question No. 3

After we finished the Adele 'Set fire to the rain' Music video, we decided as a group to publish the final music video onto 'Youtube' which is a worldwide video-sharing website and we also put in onto a social networking service and website known as 'Facebook'. We decided that we want to publish it onto these two sites because we thought it would be the best place in order to get a range of people to give us feedback for our music video, and also fit our specific target audience (14-30) We asked the audience to give feedback on our finished music video. We asked them what there overall response to the video was any positives or negatives about the video and why? Here is what was said:

Audience Feedback from Facebook:

Overall responses to the video:

Lip syncing was really good

Good ideas used - Locations

The creativity of the video.

Great body movement

Excellent costumes and makeup

Starting of all three characters

Great ending of all three girls

Strenghts and Weaknesses:

Feedback by Abu:

"The camera use of close ups, long shots and use of hand held effect was great as it made it look realistic and very professional!"

Feedback by Ateeka:

"The acting was really convincing, credit must be given to your studio shots and to your excellent choice in location.Well done it's brilliant ♥"

Feedback by Najma:

"I thoroughly liked the use of slow motions three times in the music video"

Feedback by Sabrin:

"OMG i love this song & great work."

Feedback by Kwame:

"Lip sync pretty good, good close ups, good range of locations. Pretty amazing overall and the hand held aint bad neither the scenes seem to repeat"

Feedback by Nikola:

"Looks great, only critisism I would give is that the lip syncing wasnt always in place"

Audience feedback from Youtube

Feedback by GAthIV:

"Very well done, it is a very good video for a start. I really liked how you guys filmed in different locations. However, the camera quality sometimes reminded me of

my first Nokia camera."

Feedback by Anwarboy786:

"Great video! love the trio here, so emotional :'( ! =D"

After requesting feedback from Facebook audience, our music video received really positive feedback. Most of our feedbacks pointed out the acting skills which look realistic and professional, and this immediately stimulated interest. Also the use of the slow motion, which we used three times in the video, also seemed to get really good feedback.

On the negative side, one comment was made that the lips sync was out of place twice in the music video, but other than that they thought it was excellent.

The audience’s overall response from the video was that we had used a wide range of different shots, from close up shots to location shots; which was eye catching and made it very interesting. The use of different types of shots encourages the audience watching the music video to perceive it in different ways, and also creates a successful and professional feel towards the music video.

Another response to the video was that the shots were changed to match the beat/rhythm of the song. Yet another positive comment which was made was about the final scene, many of

the audience thought it was a really creative idea, when the three characters walked down the alley way, which then faded into black. They also enjoyed the fun theme that ran throughout our video as it linked with the genre of the song.

Other positive comments which we received were about the use of costumes and makeup which we did for the music video. We made a decision within the group what we thought would look best for the music video because the storyboard has changed, we decided to wear different styles of clothes (Blazers, dresses, floral tops, fur coats etc). We decided these as we thought they could relate back to our targeted audience and matched it to the type of clothes they would wear, and we wanted to do something which was creative and stylish. Another strength that was given was the lip-syncing, apart from one clip, when 'Nikola' thought that the lip-syncing was sometimes out of place in the music video, therefore suggestion for improvement was on the lip syncing as it was off in some parts of the song only by a split second. Kwame commented saying we repeated some scenes throughout the music video, so if we could do it again, we would choose more locations.

Overall, the feedback we were given was generally positive, as the audience particularly like the continuity of shots, the slow motion, acting, and the creativity we used made it looked professional throughout the video. Another feature the audience seemed to like was the locations used, which gave the video an authenticity that suited the genre of the video From our audience feedback we have learnt a lot, the audience feedback picks out both positives and negatives about the music video and it allows us to get an idea of what people think of it, and what can be done to improve it.

By looking on our youtube account we can see the feedback from our music video by looking at our views. It is clear that we have attracted the right audience that we set out to. So far 69.2% females and 30.8% males have viewed our music video, with 51.6% within the age group of 13-17. The ratings continue to go down the higher the age group. This tells us that we have succeeded with reaching the target audience for our music video.

Printscreens:
YouTube:


Other Facebook feedbacks:

Evaluation Question No. 2

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

The techniques in the various media used in both the music video and digi-pack are consistent. Many of our ideas have been carried out from the main product to the supporting magazine poster and CD cover. Ultimately the song is very strong, we had to be quite consistent with what we were doing in the music video and ancillary texts in order to produce a successful piece of work. We carried similar ideas throughout the music video and put it into our magazine poster and CD covers this shows that we have kept the ideas/themes consistent and strong even whilst producing our promotional packages etc. When designing the poster, we got idea's from our chosen artist Adele's album covers and posters were designed and from there created something similar. After creating a number of posters, we asked decided as a group with poster best fitted our target audience (14-30), which best suited our chosen theme.

The almost transparent black layer around the page of the magazine poster highlights the image of the three main characters on the poster, it also contrasts with the colour scheme used white and grey for the font text this is so that the audience can gain a vintage dimension to the artists musical abilities. The variety of font size is important as it accentuates the 'OUT NOW TO BUY IN STORES & AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD', which entices the consumer with persuasive language and also a key sales tactic, leading to the box with our front CD panel to our album over, with 'Adele 21' written on top of the cover. We chose to put the number 21 as its relating back to Adele. however the text is put in lime green to emphasize the importance of the age - it reflects her age at the beginning of production. The color green also shows a side to the album that is yet to be explored.

As a group we tried to keep the CD panels, posters etc all consistent, we achieved this by making sure there were similarities to colour pallet and the use of the striking font colour used (white, grey) to blend in with the costumes of the characters (gold, red,black) to create instinctive connotations. The front cover consists of a still image taken from the location trinity bridge which was one of our main mise en scene used throughout our music video therefore we took the image during the night to make it look effective. The background used for both our CD panels and magazine poster was black, so that the images and fonts could stand out, because we used such vibrant colours, therefore this creates a sense of realism, the fact that we aren't paying attention to the camera, creating a natural image.

The strong themes and relations between the ancillary text and main product help advertise the overall feel of the product to the audience.the central theme has kept constant throughout our project and that the main characters of the music video (the three girls) were presented on the CD casein a similar light to the character in the main product, so the audience can create a link between the two. The same theme is used on the magazine advertisement as this is the most appropriate thing to do when promoting the CD. Overall we feel the range of techniques used across our poster and CD covers are used cleverly.

The back cover is essentially a image of the three girls standing which is an enlarged version, however applying the songs which are available on the album are wrote on the back whilst

applying continuity to the theme of the fonts, symbols and conventions of a digi-pack overall.

Evaluation Question No 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video is of heartache portrayed by the performers from our group. This was influenced by many artists in the music industry that also represent this emotion in their music and music videos. Adele herself was one of our biggest influences; although she did not have a music video for “Set Fire to the Rain” We looked at some of her other music videos as most of them show the same kind of emotion and are heartfelt too. We looked into what different kinds of shots were used in her music videos to show motion and to put across the particular message across; for example, we decided to use the Sofa and the antique table as props because in Adele’s music video to “Rolling in the Deep” she is sat down and looking away from the camera which looked really effective as if she was really traumatised by the emotions she was feeling, this way the viewers can see more of the emotion she is portraying through her face and not be distracted by anything else. We also looked at how she acted in her other music videos; this gave us an idea of how to make our own video look more realistic for the type of genre and song. We decided to shoot on lots of different locations, a variety in the studio and many in Manchester too, with both night and day scenes, we decided this was best because most music videos in general – like the ones we reviewed at the beginning had a mixture of many scenes, and kept switching to and from them.
We developed different forms and conventions from other videos, however used many our own ideas too. The theme for the music video was that the three performers were being “played” by a male character. However, through different circumstances, we were not able to do this. This gave us a chance to let the viewer make their own mind up of what is going on in the video and let them use their imagination to what is happening, and decide for themselves why the performers are so heartbroken. It doesn’t give a clear view on what has happened to the characters, so we steered away from linear narrative. Most music videos of this genre would have narrative parts, although we didn’t include direct narrative, we added scenes of the performers in town where they weren’t lip synching and paying no attention to the camera, these for example include all three girls walking on their own giving a feeling of loneliness. This happens in most of Adele's music videos by keeping to the "emotional"side of things and sticking to studio scenes, which we also did.

With the amount of time we had to produce our video, in my opinion we did well to produce out music video, as it is shows many conventions of a real media product. We have made precise transitions in the editing process to help the video run smoothly, like cutting to the beat for example. We felt that this was very important to make our video look realistic and run smooth like a real music video. For example, when the beat is slow at the beginning of the song, the editing is slow pace, and when the song fastens up toward the chorus, the editing is faster to build more tension. This is seen in nearly every music video, so we knew this would be an important factor.

During the process of planning and filming our video, we needed to make sure that we kept a relationship between the lyrics, music and visuals; this is seen through the actions of the performers and the facial expressions as well as the narrative scenes in the screenshots above.

Although our music video relates to real music videos, we wanted ours to be origional, this is partly why we chose three persormers to lip sync to the voice of Adele, this is very unique within the music industry.

Magazine Advert Analysis

This magazine advert is basic and simple. But as a group we believe that it serves its purpose to advertise the artists new single, in this case is ‘set fire to the rain’. The colour scheme is black, white, gold and red, which contrasts with each other, which makes the poster appealing to the eye. The artists name is at the bottom left hand side of the page, which is conventional as people would most definitely expect it to be there. We have tried to keep the font style simple just like the original album cover, however we have kept the size reasonably big, so it attracts our audience. The image is a long shot of all three girls to show who the main characters are in the music video. Their style refers to the modern style, which directly tells the audience that it is a modern song. Their posture emphasizes the emotion through out the song, which is unhappy. It is obvious that this magazine advert appeals to both genders, because of the colours used in the text, doesn’t target one specific gender as the font colour used is neutral therefore its eye catching to both genders. It has the important information written in a bigger font to make it stand out. Audiences are informed immediately that the album is ready to buy in stores and

Distribution and Marketing
Technological convergence:
It includes website links that audiences can look out for Adele's latest new, eg new songs, interviews and videos.
Aswell as having links to the artists' sites, it also has a Facebook page, which targets more people as it is a social networking site, and the popularity of the targeted audience (13-45) already have a Facebook account, this widens the popularity of the artist.
Another modern technological convergence is the Blackberry Code on the actual poster. People who own the smartphone will be able to scan the bar code, which then gives them news about the song and the artist.

Album Cover -Altogether-

Album Cover:

The inside right of digipak

Final Design:

We wanted the inside right cover to look simple, however, still keeping a picture on it would make it more interesting.

Past Designs:

The inside left of digipak

Final Design:

After thinking that the ratings look tacky and cheap, we decided to get rid of it, however we wanted to keep the quote to add a little touch from the artist.
-This was edited from Picnik

Past Designs:

We then decided to add more details, as we felt that leaving it blank was too plain.
We added stuff like real ratings from newspapers, and one of Adele's quote. However, we thought that the ratings looked a bit tacky.


We have put all the tracklist from the album "21" in transparent so the buyer can see how the lyrics reflects the artists inner feelings on the songs.

We first wanted to leave the left inside panel simple, as it already looks effective and appealing to the eyes.

The back panel of digipak

Our back panel has the three performers on it, to show the audience who and what the singer(s) look like. Their facial expressions are made to emphasize their feelings and their strong individuals. They could also resemble their strength and determination to make a comeback after being affected by some aspects that have occurred described in the lyrics, which shows power and evoking.

The font used is very similar to Adele’s font in her “21” album, we kept it white and simple because we wanted to reflects our chosen artists’ original cover. Also, by keeping the lettering simple, the attention of the audience is drawn directly to back to the eye- catching image of the main star(s).

By adding the production and institutional information including the barcode, official artist’s site and logos enables the back cover of the CD panel makes it look realistic, and at the same time informative to the audience, as it has Adele’s own website so they can be updated with her.

The front panel of digipak

The front cover for our album is a very basic, but is also interesting to the audience as it allows them to see the three main characters starring in the music video looking very feminine.
The reason being for the front album cover being simple, is that we wanted it to connect to Adele's real album cover, which is very plain and similar to ours.
Having the background being black, makes the album look dull and depressing which could reflect back to the lyrics, which are also depressing and can also project the loneliness after the breakup.
‘Adele 21’ appears on the front cover of the album written in lighter colours and in a simple font, which reflects the artists (Adele’s) original album cover.

Our Finished CD Panels

Our finished CD panels
As a group we have completed our CD panels for part of our digipak, however within our panels we have kept the theme of keeping it simple throughout the creative process when designing the panels, As a group we feel certain about the designs of the panels. We feel as though we have met the targets of what we were looking to do by creating CD panels which were creative and very imaginative. Therefore in the next blog posts we will upload our completed images for our digipak.

Photoshoot for magazine advert and CD panels

Here are a few pictures that we have taken around Trinity Bridge in town for our magazine advert and CD panels, but decided not to use for our final designs. We took these picture with an SLR camera to have a better quality, making it more realistic.

Adele - Set Fire To the rain A2 Music Video

Questionnaire:

1. Do you think this is acceptable and represents a pop music video?

2. What are the most positive points about the video?

3. What are the most negative points about the video and how can it be improved?

3. Do you think the overall feel of the video represents the song?

4. Do you think the locations are right for the music video?

5. Do you think the costumes fit with the song and video?

6. Do you think there is enough variety of shots used?

7. What do you think of the effects used in the video?

8. What is your overall view on the music video?