Evaluation

The brief I chose for my Advanced Portfolio was;
To produce a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video. Together with two of the three options;
A website homepage for the band, A cover for it's release on CD/DVD, A magazine advertisement for CD/DVD.
I chose to make a music promo video, a CD album cover and a magazine advertisement.

Before I began to make my promotion package I carried out some secondary research on music video's. First I researched the history of music video's and when music video's first started out and which artists first started to produce music video's. I also looked at which music video's were the most expensive and which music channels first started to broadcast music video's and also how music video's have now developed. For example, I looked at how the Internet can help to promote a music video, both MySpace and YouTube stream music videos allowing the audience to watch the video online. I also researched the purpose of a music video and important it is for a artist to have a music video. This research helped me when planning my own music video as the research showed me how popular and important music video's are. Music video's are not only shown on MTV, NME, KISS etc, there now shown on the Internet on sites such as Vevo (YouTube) and on MySpace. So the video's are shown to a wider audience, if the song has a good music video to accompany it, it's more likely to do well. As people will not only remember the song but the music video. I also did textual analysis on three different music video's, I researched which conventions they used, what camera angles were used, the narrative structure of the video whether it was performance based, narrative based or both. I also looked at if the video was edited to the beat of the music. By doing a textual analysis I found out that different genres of music use different conventions in their video's.
To meet audience expectations I used the research from the textual analysis' into my own planning. As I now knew which song I wanted to use and what the conventions of that particular genre would need to be applied to my music video. I went through some song changes before making my final song choice, so I had already carried out some secondary research on the conventions of different genres of music. To meet the audience expectations I wanted to make sure that I fit in some conventions of pop/electro music genre. In my video I used the notion of looking which was a common conventions in Lady GaGa music video's. I also carried out some primary research on how often the audience watched music video's and also what genre of music was preferred. The target audience for my production is the 16-25 age range, to meet the audience expectations I carried out primary research and also I researched the conventions of my pop/electro genre and I put these conventions into my own production. Also I made sure that the people I asked for my primary research fit into the age range 16-25.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To make my media production I researched which conventions music videos used. The conventions which are used in music videos are; the notion of looking, voyeuristic pleasure for the audience, a range of different locations, a range of different camera shots and angles, lip syncing and lyric interpretation within the narrative structure of the music video. I also researched which conventions magazine advertisements used. The conventions which are used on magazine advertisements are; a main headline, a main image, puffs (which include different pieces of information) and a strap line. I also researched which conventions CD covers's used. The conventions which are used on CD covers's are; front cover (including main image, album name, artist's name and production logo), a spine (including artist's name and album name), a back cover (main image, album name, artist name, track listing, production logo, producer's name and a bar code), another spine (including artist's name and album name) and a extra inside panel (including main image and lyrics) This gave me some idea of the conventions which I needed to put into my own production. A music video gives the audience voyeuristic pleasure, which means that the artist doesn't know they're being watched by an audience. Voyeuristic pleasure relates to the audience theory 'Uses and Gratifications', this theory is an audience centred theory. The theory assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting media into their own lives. This theory also knows that audience are responsible for choosing different forms of media to meet their own needs and gratifications. My video fits into this audience theory as the audience can decide if they want to interpret this form of media into their own lives. In my video I made sure that a notion of looking was used to give my audience voyeuristic pleasure. My production basically uses the same conventions as other media productions, in my music video I have used the notion of looking, I've made sure that the artist is the main focus in my video to give the audience voyeuristic pleasure. The artist makes eye contact with the camera and I have used close ups to show that she is the main focus in the video. The video is shot in two different locations, to make sure that the video didn't look the same all the way through. At different parts of the video the artist mimes to the song, this is called lip syncing. The lyrics are interpreted into the narrative structure of the video, for example the lyrics 'love love love' are interpreted into my video when the artist makes a heart symbol. The video has both a narrative/performance structure, as the artist is waiting for a boy to call and she then goes to his house and performs the track. My magazine advertisement uses all the same conventions as other magazine advertisements in production. The advertisement has a main headline which is the album name and the artist name. A main image which is three different images of the artist. Puffs on my advertisement which include release dates, singles included and producers name. And a strap line which includes the website for the artist. My CD cover also uses all the same conventions as other CD covers in production. The CD cover has a front cover which includes a main image of the artist and the album name. A spine which includes again the artist's name and the album name. A back cover which includes a main image of the artist, the album name, the track listing, producers logo,bar code and producers name. Another spine which again includes the artist's name and the album name. A extra panel with a image of the artist and lyrics from the main album track.I decided to follow all of the same conventions as the existing productions do, to make my own production fit in with these existing productions and to ensure that my production fits in with the audience expectations of the production.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Before I made my main product and ancillary texts, I looked at existing music promo video's, magazine advertisement's and CD covers which the artist Lady GaGa had already released, the reason I looked at Lady GaGa productions was before she is the artist I based my full production and also I used the song 'Bad Romance' (released October 25th 2009, Cherry Tree Record Company) for my music video. I looked at how effective her combination of music promo videos and ancillary was and if the combination worked. I looked at how the artist used the costume from her 'Just Dance' (released April 8th 2008, Cherry Tree Record Label) video for her album 'The Fame' (released August 19th 2008, Cherry Tree Record Label). The costume which the artist wore for the video is also the costume which she wore for her artwork for 'The Fame' (released August 19th 2008, Cherry Tree Record Label). Also the magazine advertisement uses the CD cover as it's main image. The combination worked as the main product and the ancillary texts all used imagery for the 'Just Dance' (released April 8th 2008, Cherry Tree Record Label) music video. As well as researching Lady GaGa I looked at other existing productions from other artists and found out that most magazine advertisements used CD covers as their main image and the costume used for the CD cover is the costume used from the music promo video. Ensuring an effective combination. When producing my own main product and ancillary texts I took into account what I had learnt from my research, when producing my magazine advertisement and CD cover I made sure that my magazine advertisement had the CD pack shot on it. I did this to show that the magazine advertisement was promoting the release of the album, also by adding the CD cover image onto the advertisement I was showing the audience which album was been promoted. I also made sure that artist wore the same costume in the main product and both the ancillary products, to show that the ancillary products are promoting the video. On both my ancillary products I made sure that I used the same colour scheme, the same font, the same font size and colour to make sure that they all promoted each other. Again to promote the music video. I think that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts is effective as each product promotes either one or both of the other products. All my images which I used, the artist is in the same costume and I have used a notion of looking in all my images. The artist is attractive and although her costumes are not provocative she does look attractive in all the images. I used a range of different camera shots, the images included on my magazine advertisement all use the portrait shot (the artists upper body is framed in the shot). This shot shows that the artist is the main focus of the frame, this also creates voyeuristic pleasure for the audience. The audience can look/watch the artist without the artist actually knowing that she is being watched/looked at. The images included on my CD pack shot also frame the artist's upper body in the shot, but instead I took the images from a higher angle, so the artist is looking up at the camera instead of straight at the camera. I used a higher angle for these images to show that I have used a range of different shots in my production. This shot also shows that the artist is the main focus in the frame, again creating voyeuristic pleasure for the audience. I also used the same colour scheme through the production ensuring that all my production promotes an effective combination and all my products promote one another.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I based my own production on the artist Lady GaGa, before I started my own production I researched the artist and the intuitions which she is involved in. I looked at the record company she is signed to. Her record label is Interscope Records, the company is Amercian based and a subsidiary product of the Universal Music Group, the company is one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M record label. Interscope is the leading unit at UMG and in 2005 the label introduced Cherry Tree Records which Lady GaGa is signed to. When producing my own production I considered the record's label success, and by basing my own production on a successful artist meets audience expectations as the audience are already aware of the actual artist and the artist's success. The audience theory 'Two step form of communication' illustrates the relationship of how audiences interpret media's direct message and the audience's reaction to that direct message. Audience's with more access to the media and having a more literate understanding of the media content, explain the content to audience's who don't have much access to media content. This audience theory is a more updated version of the 'Hypodermic Needle Model'. Also the audience theory 'Reception Theory', this theory focuses on the 'negation' and 'opposition' on the part of the audience, this means that a media text or any other creative piece of work is not simply passive accepted by the audience, but the reader interprets the meaning of the text based on their individual culture or personal background. In other words, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the reader and the text. When I showed an audience my own production, the response I got was a positive response. The audience commented on how they liked the music video and how the artist in my music video did a good job of acting as Lady GaGa. The audience response on my ancillary texts was also positive, the audience commented on how they liked the colour scheme of both my ancillary texts and how effective the combination of my production was, and how each text promoted one another. If I wanted to improve my own production, I would have filmed my music video in a completely different light as I'm not happy with the lightening of my music video. Also because I went through a lot of changes with bands and people who was supposed to be in my production I would have made my idea for production a lot better. In my opinion the idea for my music video was far too basic, the idea that I originally wanted for my video needed a larger cast. But because at the last minute people cancelled I didn't have the chance to go with my original idea. I like my ancillary texts, as I think that the advertisement and the CD cover all promote each other and I think that the combination is effective. I also do like my music video, I like the setting I chose for my music video and I think that Sarah worked well as GaGa. Because I was basing my own production on Lady GaGa and I used Bad Romance (Released October 25th 2009, Cherry Tree Records)as my song for my music video I thought it would make sense to have my own artist impersonate Lady GaGa. I would have preferred to go with my original idea, but I think the idea I chose did work well in the end. The audience for my media production would be females in the age range of 14-25. This audience would show an interest the in pop/electro music
genre and show an interest in the conventions of electro/pop music (conventions such as; dance routines, lyric interpretation within the narrative structure of the video, the notion of looking and a large cast within the video).

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
To make my own production, I first researched the history of music videos. I looked at when music videos first started out and how the music video has developed over the years, for example music streaming from the Internet and how this has developed over the years. I also researched which artists made the most expensive video's and the most inflectional video's. I also did textual analysis' on three different music video's, these video's were each a different genre of music. I then researched the conventions of music video's and which conventions different genres of music used in their productions. After I became aware of the conventions, I began to get some idea's of what I wanted my own production to look like. My first idea was to have film a unknown band preform Mr Brightside (Released September 29th 2003, Island Records), but the band wanted to do one of their own songs. So my next idea was to film the band at one of their own gigs preforming their own track, I decided against this because the band began to become unreliable and I didn't think the track they wanted to preform was appropriate for my production. My next idea was to base my artist on Lady GaGa and have someone act as Lady GaGa in my production, but again because people started to become unreliable I didn't use this idea. In the end I decided to have a friend act as Lady GaGa and mime to Bad Romance.
To get some idea of what my music video would look like, I made an animatic using my storyboard and Windows Movie Maker. To make my animatic I simply added the still photo's of my storyboard to the program and pressed play, this gave me some idea of what my video would look like. As well as showing me how my video would look like once filmed, the animatic also gave me some idea of how the narrative structure of my video would work and if this structure worked well. The animatic also enabled me to see how much editing my video would need, by this I mean I was able to see which clips needed to be cut down, which clips would fade into the clip before and also I was able to see how long my music video would be. I came up with a shooting schedule so that I knew when I would be filming, I also came up prop, cast and location lists. I made two animatic's, the first animatic was the storyboard of the unknown band preforming their own track. And my second animatic is the storyboard of Bad Romance. I made two animatic's to show how my idea has changed and developed.
Once I filmed my video using a college camera I was able to transfer the footage onto a editing suite as I recorded my footage on mini DV. Mini DV enabled me to have my footage in a digital format, I edited the video using a editing suite and a program called Adobe Premier Pro. I had basic knowledge of how to use this program from my AS year as I had to make a film trailer to give me some practise for the second year production. Once my video was on the editing suite I started to label the clips and decided which clips to keep, after I had done this I imported my clips onto Adobe Premier Pro and began cutting down the length of the clips and also ensured that my clips were in the correct order. I placed my clips onto a timeline, the clips had to be on two separate lines so that the clips don't overwrite each other when playing. I then began to add effects to my video such as fade in's, fade outs and the title sequence. To fade in and fade out my clips I simply used the pen tool and held control to get a fade in or a fade out. To fade in a clip, I used the pen tool at the start of the clip and to get a fade out I used the pen tool at the end of the track. I overlapped some of the clips on the timeline so that some of the clips fade into each other. Next I added my track to the video, to do this I imported my track from a USB to the editing suite. Before I actually added my track, I muted any background noise. To do this I locked my video clips and kept my audio unlocked and just simply deleted any unlocked objects, the audio. I then added my track to my music video. I locked this audio to ensure that it wouldn't be deleted. Finally, I needed to add some title sequences, to do this I clicked new which was in the toolbox at the top of the program and then just clicked on title. I then typed the track name and artist, this was the beginning title sequence. I added two more title sequences, one simply had the lyrics and the other had the producers name and cast.
Once I had made my music video, I then had to make two ancillary texts. The first text was a magazine advertisement. Firstly I researched what conventions magazine advertisements used and I also did a textual analysis' on three magazine advertisements. I looked at Lady GaGa magazine advertisements (I looked at the Monster Ball advertisement taken from a website named The Insider, published Novemeber 2009, I also looked at the Bad Romance CD front cover, published October 2009. Finally I looked at Gwen Stefani's advertisement for her album Love.Angel.Music.Baby published in 2004) and looked at what conventions these used and how these advertisements were set out. I also looked at a Gwen Stefani magazine advertisement to see which conventions this advertisement used. I did a textual analysis on all three advertisement, a skill I learnt in my AS year. Once I was aware of the conventions of advertisements, I then began to come up with my own idea's for a magazine advertisement. I used to Microsoft Publisher to make some mock up designs of what my advertisement would look like and I also made a paper copy mock up of the advertisement and scanned these onto the computer. My original idea for my advertisement was to have sixteen squares on the advertisement, this squares would be different images and would make one larger image. I then changed my idea to nine squares and I made a mock up of this on Microsoft Publisher. But when it came to making my advertisement I changed this to a montage of three different images. Before I made my actual advertisement I edited my image's using Adobe Photo Shop CS3. Because I had already used Adobe Photo Shop 7 in my AS year, I was familiar with editing image's on the program. I chose three different image's and edited the background colours of each image's. Two of the image's had grey backgrounds and the remaining image had a beige background. To change the background colour, I simply cut out the image using the crop tool and erased out the original background using the eraser tool. I then took away the colour from the figure in my image, to do this I saturated the colour from the figure. I did this to each of my images. I then made my magazine advertisement using Microsoft Word, I simply added the image's and placed them together to make a montage of photo's. The colour scheme for my advertisement is beige and grey, and on my advertisement I have three blocks of colour (grey and beige). I chose the colours grey and beige as whilst I was carrying out some secondary research on different magazine advertisements and CD covers, I found that Lady GaGa used a grey background for her own album cover, I thought that the grey worked well as a background colour as it wasn't too bright and it wasn't too dull either. I chose the colour beige as I thought that this colour would work well with the grey. I think that the colour scheme used appeals to a unisex audience as neither colour is associated with males or females. Also because my music video doesn't use bright lightening or any bright objects, using a bright colour scheme for the ancillary products wouldn't have made an efgective combination. To make sure that the blocks of colour were the same as my background colours on my photo's, I simply cut a piece of each colour and pasted these colours to make my three blocks. I used Word Art to make the main headline (artist name and song title). Lastly, once I had made my CD cover, I used a smaller image of the cover on my advertisement to show what the advert was promoting.
Finally, I needed to make my second ancillary text which was the CD cover. I again researched CD covers's, but this time I just analysed Lady GaGa CD covers's. I did a textual analysis on two different front covers and a back cover. I researched the conventions and once I became aware of these conventions, I began to come up with some of my own idea's. I used a template from the Internet and printed this off, by doing this I had some idea of what a CD cover looked like and the sizes of the cover. I made two paper mock ups of what I wanted my CD cover to look like, the only difference with these mock ups was the colour schemes. One was grey and the other was beige. I decided to go with the grey colour scheme. As I thought that this colour scheme fit in with my production better. I thought that the grey colour scheme worked better than the beige colour scheme as if I had used a beige colour scheme, the image I had used for my front cover would have blended to much into the background. As the artist has blonde wig on in the image and her hair would have blended to much into the background. Instead of just making the front and back cover, I made a inside panel. Ensuring that my production all fit in with one another. Again, I edited the image's for my CD cover using Adobe Photo Shop. I changed the background colour of each image to grey again. To do this I simply cut around the image, using the crop tool and erased out the original background using the eraser tool and changed the background colour to grey using the paint bucket tool. To make my front cover, I added text which was the album name and the artist name. I used the text tool to do this, I made sure that all my text was written in the same font and didn't clash with the background colour. I also added a logo to my front cover, the logo added was the record company logo. Because I couldn't use an existing logo, I made my own. As I based my production on Lady GaGa and her record label is Cherry Tree Records, I simply found an image of a cherry and called my record label Cherry Records. That way I'm not using an existing record company. To make my back cover, I added track listing, the artist's name, the album, the production company. I used the text tool to add this text to my back cover, again I made sure that all text added was the same colour and didn't clash with the background colour. Again, I used an image of a cherry to make my record label logo. I also added a bar code, to do this I found an image of a bar code, re sized the image using Paint and copy and pasted the image onto my background image. To make my extra panel, I used a image from my magazine advertisement and this is my extra panel. I added text to the image which was simply the a lyric from Bad Romance. I made my full CD cover using Adobe Photo Shop.
I'm pleased with the final production, although with my music video I am not happy with the lightening in some clips of the video. If I was to film my music video again, I would have used brigher lightening. I would have also used a brigher bulb as well to ensure that the audience can see what is going on in some of the clips and also to ensure better lightening in these clips. And some of the camera work is not as good as it could be. Also at some parts in my video, the artist is miming to the track, but doesn't quite mime in time which I'm not that happy with as I think it doesn't fit in with my video. But other than that, I'm overall happy with my production, I prefer my ancillary texts to my main production as I thought these two texts work well together and I think that both texts look quite good. I had more control over these two ancillary texts, I knew what I want to be included in the texts and I put that into the text, whereas with the main production I did have control over my video but because I went through so many different idea's with it it didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to.

Final Ancillary Product No.2

This is the front cover.

Back Cover

Inside Panel

Extra Panel

I decided to use the same image for both my front and back cover as I preferred this image to my other image.

To make my CD cover I used Adobe Photo Shop CS3. I edited the images on Adobe Photo Shop Cs3 and made the CD cover on Adobe Photo Shop Cs3 too. I changed the background of all my images to grey, to make sure that all production followed the same colour scheme. I used the colour grey for my CD cover as I didn't want to use bright colours and also because I researched existing CD covers before I actually started to put my CD cover together and one of the covers I looked at was Lady GaGa's The Fame Monster, this album artwork used a grey colour scheme and I thought that the artwork looked quite effective as it didn't use any bright colour at all. None of the CD covers I looked at used bright colours, they all use darker colours and because my magazine advertisement uses a beige and grey colour scheme I decided to use a grey colour scheme to make all production fit together as I thought that a grey colour scheme would work better than a beige colour scheme, as if I used a beige colour scheme the artist would be blend to much into the background and also using a beige colour scheme would make the artist herself look to pale and the image would again blend to much with the background colour

Final Ancillary Product No.1

This is my final magazine advertisement, I made this on Microsoft Word. I edited all my image's which are on the advertisement using Adobe Photo Shop CS3. This advertisement is advertising a new album. At the top of my advertisement I have the album name underneath this I have the artist's name. I've used three different blocks of colour on my advert, the blocks of colour which I have used are the colours which I have used a my image's background. Underneath the image's I have all the information about the album, such as release dates, singles which are included and the producer's name. Also at the bottom of the advertisement I have a website for the artist.

The conventions included on this magazine advertisement are;
a main headline, this is the artist's name and the title of the CD.
a main image, this is the montage of three photos in the middle of the advertisement.
a release date.
the names of other singles included on the CD.
the producers name.
the artists website.

Edited Image's

This is the image for the front of my CD cover. I edited my image using Adobe Photo Shop. I needed to change the background colour of my image, to do this I painted around the image using the brush tool with a medium sized diameter and a softened edge to ensure I painted around the image carefully and neatly. I wanted to move the figure in my image to the middle of the frame, to do this I cut the image and then pasted this in the centre of the frame. I then used paint to copy and paste the grey colour over the gaps left when I cut the image.

This is the image for the back of my CD cover. I edited this image again using Adobe Photo Shop. Again, I need to change the background colour of my image. To do this I painted around the image using the brush tool with a medium sized diameter and a softened edge to ensure I painted around the image carefully and neatly. I changed the colour of the ribbon on the hat from red to pink, to do this I painted the image pink using the brush tool. Also I wanted to paint Sarah's fingernails pink, to do this I just painted the nails pink using a brush tool.

Unedited Image's

These are my unedited image's which I am going to be using my CD cover. The first one is going to be my front cover and the last one is going to be my back cover. For the extra panel I'm going to be using either screen shots or the same three image's which are on my magazine advertisement.

Designs for CD Digipack

I have come up with two different designs for my CD digipacks they are both basically the same. Except some of the objects are placed in different positions.



This is the first design for my CD digipack. On the back cover, there is track listings down the right hand side and underneath the track listing is the record label's name and next to that is the producers who have made the album, next to the producers I have a bar code and above that I have a photo of the artist. Then at the top of the cover is the artist's name.
On the front cover of my CD cover, I have a image of the artist which takes up most of the cover space, underneath this I have the artist's name and the name of the CD.

On the extra panel, I have three different image's. The image's will be of the artist, this extra panel is going to take the same design as my magazine advertisement.



This is the 2nd design for my CD cover, this design is mainly the same as my first design except from one small change on the back cover.
On the back cover, down the left hand side I have the track listing. At the bottom of the cover, I have the producers and the bar code. Near the top of the cover, I have the artist's name and in the top right hand corner, I have the record label.
The front cover is just the same as on design no.1 there is a image of the artist which again takes up most of the CD cover. Underneath the image is the artist's name and the name of the CD.
The extra panel once again is just the same as design no.1 which will have three different image's, the extra panel will be done in the same design as the magazine advertisement.

Examples of CD Covers

The first CD cover I'm going to be looking at is the Bad Romance CD cover. The cover is the single cover for Bad Romance. (Released October 25th 2009)

The cover is mainly a image of the artist, the artist has a red veil over all of her face and most of her body. The background and the artist's hair are the only things which aren't red. The background is white and the artist's hair is blond, almost white blond. The veil which the artist holds over herself is red, at the bottom of the veil there are ruffles which are a darker red.
The artist name and song title are both in red, but a lighter red. The title doesn't blend into the background of the veil so the audience are able to read the title. The artist name and song title are written in a bold font and written in capital letters.


The second album cover is the Fame Monster album cover. (Released November 18th 2009)



The background of the cover is a grey/black colour, the artist takes up most of the CD cover.
The artist's hair is white blond which is a contrast to the background colour. She is wearing a black top and she holds the collar over her face.
The artist's name and album title is written at the bottom of the CD cover in a bold simple white font. The T in Monster is shaped like a cross.

I'm going to be using this CD cover as a base for my own CD cover as I really do like how simple it is.

This is a back cover from Lady GaGa's album The Fame. (Released August 19th 2008)

The background of the album cover is black and in the middle of the cover is a image of the artist holding a microphone, the singer is all in black except her hands as she has white gloves on. She has a lightening bolt painted on her face in black, this is a tribute to her idol David Bowie. The artists name is written in a white simple font. The word Lady is on the left hand side of the image and the word GaGa is on the right hand side of the image. The track listing for the album is written down the left hand side and all the tracks are written in a smaller white font.

Underneath the word GaGa is the names of the producers who made the album. And underneath the word Lady is all the websites for the artists and the record company's website. The record company's name is also under the website, as well as the year the album was produced. The bar code is underneath the producer's name. There are two spines, and on each of them there is the artist's name and the album title.