Our Finished Music Video

We have finally finished making our music video, and uploaded it onto YouTube. Here it is!

Finished Digipak (Whole Digipak)

This is our final Digipak. We decided to go with the black and white version as we felt that it would more suit our style of being an alternative rock band.

Finished Magazine Advert!

This is our magazine advert of which we have finished. In order to be able to upload it to blogger, we have had to reduce the image quality significantly in order to get the file size down.

Evaluation Question #4

Here is my answer to Evaluation Question #4 which is:

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


In case some of the pictures don't show, here is the web address to the answer:

https://app.emaze.com/@AOQQFCIQ/evaluation-question-4

Evaluation Question #3

Evaluation Question #3

Here is my answer to Evaluation Question #3 which is:

4). What have you learned from your audience feedback?



Here is the Audience Feedback video of which I have mentioned in my answer.




Below are the two videos which show the Rough Cut of the music video and the finished version. You can tell how we used audience feedback to make changes to the rough cut in order to create the finished version.

Evaluation Question #2

 This is my answer to Evaluation Question #2. I decided to use Popplet in order to answer this question which was:

2). How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts 
(DVD digipak, Magazine advert)?

In case any of the content doesn't show up, here is a web address link to my answer:

http://popplet.com/app/#/2425041

Evaluation Question #1

This is my Prezi Presentation for Evaluation Question #1 which is:

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


In case any of the content doesn't work, here is the web address link to my answer:

https://prezi.com/q3eam6elk-sa/evaluation-question-1/

Audience Feedback

After finishing all of our production pieces (music video, digipak and magazine advert), we decided to show all 3 of our productions pieces to 3 of our other classmates in order to get some audience feedback. We wanted to find out what others liked about our productions pieces, and whether we was effective at producing our tasks.

The 7 questions that we asked were:

1. What did you like about our music video?
2. On a scale of 1-10, how effective is the pace of editing compared to the beat of the song?
3. How effective is our use of costumes in the music video?
4. How could we have improved our music video?
5. Who do you think the target audience is for our music video?
6. Do you think the combination of the music video, magazine advert and digipak presents our band with a unique image?
7. If you saw the magazine advert and digipak together, would you think that they are for the same album and artist?

This was the feedback that we received. 

Constructing The Digipak

Back Panel of Digipak

The first panel that we decided to work on when producing our digipak was the back panel. For this, we wanted the panel to contain 4 pictures of the back of all the group members heads. We decided on this because it would match the front of the digipak. Originally, we had the idea of having contrasting black and white colours. As you can see, Alanta in the top left corner has a white background, whereas Freddie in the top right corner has a black background. We originally thought this would be a good idea as it would show off our bands image.

After doing this, we decided to have a put a black border to put around the 4 pictures. We would do this so we would have space to put the QR Code and few other bits of information.

However, after reviewing this panel, we found that there was a few colour problems. For example, Alex in the bottom left corner, we felt that it didn't really look right, and it looked too superficial. Also, Freddie's hair was white which was totally false so we decided to alter the colours again. We found the contrast that we wanted as seen on the photo on the right.

We then applied this contrast effect to all 4 pictures on the panel so it kept a consistent feel to the digipak. We felt that this looks much better then the design idea that we had before. After this, we put the names of different songs on the back as this is a typical feature of digipaks. To finish, we wanted to make our back panel look more professional. To do this, we added a barcode of which would be scanned when customers buy the product. Customers could also use a QR Code Reader/Scanner which would take them to the bands website. We then decided to have a copyright logo with the name of a company. We ended the panel with the website of the copyright company.





Front of Digipak 

The next panel we decided to create was the front panel. As the back panel of our digipak contained the back of our heads, we decided that the front of our digipak should show our faces. As you can see from the album cover on the right, we was heavily inspired by the band "No Doubt" with their album "Push and Shove".










We adopted a similar kind of style for our digipak front panel. However, we slightly altered their idea of having a white and black background, and we stuck with having white backgrounds for all 4 pictures. This maintains consistency. We used similar toning settings as in the back panel, but we made the images sharper in order to make us stand out more at which I felt we was successful at.

After we was happy with the how the pictures looked, we then added the same black border around the images. This keeps a consistent feel to the digipak as we also used a black border for the back panel. We was able to use this black border in order to put the artists name at the top, and then put the album name at the bottom.










Inside Panels of Digipak 

After completing the front and back panels of the digipak, we then decided that we should work on the 3 inside panels. For this, we wanted to keep a consistent idea of where we could apply across all 3 panels, instead of having separate ideas on the 3 panels. For this, we decided to fill the whole 3 panels with shots of our band. We have shots of as a group and individual shots of all band members.

We decided to go with this idea as it fits in with the montage idea of which we used in our music video. We also decided to use black borders around each of the pictures as it keeps with our consistency of using black borders in the front and back panels. It also makes our pictures look presentable.

We then decided to edit the pictures so that they were a bit darker which would match the theme of front and back panels of the digipak. After that, we added a CD Impression. This would show where the CD would go. As you can see, we made it slightly transparent so you can still see the pictures behind the impression.


Last Digipak Panel 

The last panel that we had to produce was the panel which shows on the outside, and is between the front panel and the back panel. We noticed from researching other digipaks that this panel never usually had much on it, just because of its placement. As a result of this, we decided to use a very simple idea of having a group picture of the band. We used the same black and white settings that we had used in our back digipak panel. We, again used a black border around this panel in order to achieve consistency. For effect, we then decided to find fonts using www.dafont.com . We wanted to find fonts that looked like signatures so we could add them to this panel so that it had a good purpose. We feel that the fonts that we chose work well, and give the panel a professional signature look.

Finished Digipak (Individual Panels)

Digipak Decision - Black and White or Colour?

Colour 

Black and White

Constructing The Magazine Advert

Before we could create our magazine advert, we had to plan different things that we would use in the advert. The first element that we had to decide on would be the main picture that we would use for our advert. We wanted to create a mood that we are a serious band, but that we have elements of fun in us as well. Also, as we are an alternative rock band, a typical band picture would be the band against the wall, of which we used for our magazine advert. We narrowed our pictures down to 2 of which we liked, but ultimately, decided to use the second picture.







The second element that we decided to plan was the font that we was going to use for the advert. We felt that this would be very important because we have to make sure that we choose a font that is suitable for the style  

of music video that we have already created. We wanted to choose a font which dictates a level of seriousness, but fun at the same time. We used the website "www.dafont.com" in order to find the font that we feel would be most suitable for our video. Screenshots on the left show some of the different fonts that we considered as a group. We would look through many of the different fonts available, and then choose which one we thought was best. We typed in our band name "Remember December" in order to get a preview of what it would look like. After much debating within the group, we finally decided on the font "Bebas Neue" which is the top screenshot. We feel that this font was the most suitable font as it achieves the goals that we needed our font to be, which was to be serious but fun at the same time.

The third element that we had to decide would be what other pictures we could use for our magazine advert. This would show places of where our album would be available to buy and download so that people could actually listen to our album. By doing this, it would make people aware of where they could listen to our album, and it also made our magazine advert look much more professional. We decided to include well known names that people will of heard of before. In the end, we decided to use Spotify and iTunes on our actual advert.










Once we had considered all of the elements that we would need to know before starting the production of our magazine advert, we was then actually able to start creating it. We used Adobe Photoshop for the production of our advert.

 Our first magazine advert production session led to this screenshot on the left. As you can see, we had made a good start to the production of our magazine advert. We decided to use a black background for our advert because of us being an alternative rock band. We also imported our picture into the document and then edited the contrast and brightness of our picture in order to make us into black and white. We are doing this to keep a consistent style, as we are also doing a similar style in our digipak. We also downloaded and imported our font "Bebas Neue" into Photoshop and then used our band name "Remember December" at the top. We also used the album name "Friends With Benefits" with the album release date "19.06.15". We then decided to use a turquoise/green colour as we felt that it stands out against the black background. The final thing that we did was to add a 5 star rating to make our advert seem professional.

Our second magazine advert production session was when we thought about other different things that we could put in our magazine advert. In particular, we thought about different places that we would make our album available. We imported the Spotify logo and the iTunes logo (as seen on the left) and then we used the "Free Transform" option of where we would reduce the size of the logo without making the image contorted.
                                                                                   


This was what our magazine advert looked like after finishing our second production session. As you can see, we had added the logos of iTunes and Spotify into our advert, and we had also added another 5 star logo. We then had put in names of famous music critics who have rated our album 5 stars. We felt that this made our magazine advert look much more professional.

On our third magazine advert production session, we finally had finished the production of our magazine advert. As you can see, we had added a QR code, of where customers could scan the code using a QR code reader and then it would take them to the bands website "www.rememberdecember.co.uk". We then just added the website just below the QR code so that people could go to the website in order to find out more information about our band.

Digipak - Analysing Two Existing Digipaks

What is a digipak? 

Usually, a digipak consists of usually 6 paperboards/card stocks which are able to join together. The outer biding allows the 6 to be able to come together. At least one of the card stocks contains a plastic CD Holding case which is where discs are kept, and they are kept in place by the tray. It means, that when the album is opened, you can flip the disc out, instead of simply opening up the plastic case. Digipak editions are often used for special editions of CD Singles or Albums and are known as premium packaging. A typical digipak could include:

• Pictures/Photographs - Usually at least one of these will be a close up of the artist/s, and will show a particular emotion. Another one of these frames may show a particular emotion which may relate to the album or a particular song.
• Track List - Sometimes on the back frame, there is a track list, which shows all of the songs which are included, and tells people what order they come in, when played in a CD player. 
• Disc Impression - This would be 1/2 frames which are dedicated to holding the CD in place. The plastic CD holding case is able to hold the disc, but a slight background can be seen through the case. This may be a simple design, or a simple picture as it is not always clear to see. Alternatively, there may be a design on the disc. 
• Information on the Album and Artist - This would include all members of the band, and what instruments they play/jobs they do. This would also include any additional musicians that they may have needed for one song. Copyright information and year of release would also be given. 
• Barcode and Record Company Logo
• Other albums/singles that the artists have released before. 

The combination of a black background with the golden colour of text really makes this album cover stand out. The Goldish/Brown colour really makes the font stand out and almost brings it to life. The choice of Gold also reflects that AC/DC are one of the best artists out there, with the idea of Gold being very valuable. It is a very simple, but very effective choice of album cover, as it isn't overly complicated and it does its purpose. I also think the little Gold bits around the title, suggests that AC/DC are a bit edgy, and like to do things out of the ordinary.

The use of colour imagery is very good in this digipak. I think that the choice of colours that have been used are very effective. I like the shade of red that has been used, as it stands out a lot against the dull grey/greenish background. Also, the image reflects the album name. The name "Breaking Through The Silence" is reflected in the picture, as there are cracks in the floor which symbolises the breaking through. Also, there is a person on the far left, which tells us this is a human problem, and possibly that he/she is a quiet person and wants to change this.







Relationship between Digipak and Magazine Advert - Katy Perry 

This is an example of a digipak and magazine advert that are trying to advertise the same artist and the same album. This example is Katy Perry and her album "I Kissed A Girl". As you can see, the album cover is on the right, and the magazine advert is on the left. These two work well together as the same font is used. Where Katy Perry's name is written on both, the same style of font is used. This is so that audience would recognise that these different media texts are for the same artist and the same album. This makes the relationship between the two very effective. Also, she is wearing pink clothing in both media texts which also shows the relationship between the both. 

Case Studies on Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson is one of the most important people ever in the music industry. He has achieved and done things that have never been done before. He has been a very controversial, but influential figure in the music industry, and has definitely changed how music and pop videos are. He was always known as the King of Pop, but he was also The King of the Pop Video.




Jackson 5 - Rockin Robin

The first pop video that Michael Jackson was involved in was when he was apart of the Jackson 5. The song was called Rockin Robin and it was made in 1971. When compared to the music videos of today, it was a very basic music video in the way that it was just a performance video. The whole video was based on Michael and his family singing and playing their instruments and this was the basis for the whole video. With regards to the mise-en-scene, the Jackson 5 changed their costumes in this video many times, ranging from really bright colours to basic black and white. There was a simple dance routine in the music video, which is one of the key features of music videos.





Michael Jackson - Billy Jean

The first major music video that Michael Jackson ever done when he split from the Jackson 5 and became a solo artist is for the song "Billy Jean". This music video is famous because it is the first pop video that is not just simple lip-syncing as this video does contain some kind of story within, as well as having the lip-syncing in the video. The story in this video is Michael Jackson walking about while singing the song and he is looking for Billy Jean. This could be supposedly be seen as his love interest and the video is the story of Michael trying to look for her. I also think the lyrics of the song are illustrated within this video because Michael often says "Billy Jean is not my lover" and he is constantly seen to be by himself, which agrees with the lyrics. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is a key feature of music videos.




Michael Jackson - Beat It

The next major music video that Michael Jackson produced as a solo artists was the song "Beat It". By this time, each music video that Michael Jackson released was eagerly anticipated by millions of people across the world. This video is also unique as it was another video which was able to combine lip-syncing and the storyline together to create a more unique video. This video is also well known for the ending because of the well choreographed dance routine that is shown at the end. It is definitely well rehearsed and thought of, and is definitely memorable for the audience. There are lots of close up shots of Michael Jackson throughout this video which is one of the key features of music videos.




Michael Jackson - Thriller

Known as the most famous music video of all time, the song "Thriller" changed the way that music videos were seen and made. The Library of Congress added this music video to its National Film Industry in 2009, which was the first music video ever to be given such credit. The whole video is 14 minutes long, and is made like a mini film, as there is a big storyline to it, with the singing and dancing included with it. It really set the benchmark for all future music videos, and was definitely a video that improved the standards of videos. The costumes, dialogue and dance routine are all iconic. MTV used to show the short 4-5 minute version of this video, but it was so popular that people used to go to the cinema and be able to watch the whole version of this video. The video (Made in 1983) was paid for, and directed by a man called John Landis as Jackson's own record company refused to pay for it.  Jackson didn't have to pay for it, as he also paid made a deal with Showtime and MTV, and gave them the rights to show the video. This video was also the winner of many awards at the 1984 MTV Music Video Awards including Best Performance Video. This video started the trend of group dance scenes in pop videos. Back in the 80's when cassette tapes were a thing, the tape for this video/song became the best selling music video of all time, which was confirmed by Guinness World Records as selling 9 million copies. This was bought usually as a Christmas present for other people.





Michael Jackson - Bad

After making the music video for "Thriller", Michael Jackson was the most popular pop star in the world. The next video after Thriller had a big reputation to live up to, and the next video that he did make was for the song "Bad". When Michael released new videos, they were often seen as being real events as his video made the news because of how popular they was. The music video was so popular that it was shown live on the BBC at midnight, and millions of people even stayed up until midnight just to see this video, hence the popularity. People were very excited to see the new material that Michael Jackson was creating. There are frequent close ups of Michael Jackson, and obviously the reputation of having unique dance routines which are key features of music videos.




Michael Jackson - Black or White

At the time of the release of this video, there was many rumors going around about how Michael Jackson tried to change his skin colour from black to white through surgery. As a result of this, he lost a lot of his black fan base, as they felt they he was ashamed to be black, such was the reason that he wanted to change his skin colour from black to white. To try and win these fans back again, he made this song called "Black Or White". The main message of this song is Michael trying to say that it doesn't matter what skin colour you are, and he is trying to promote race equality. He wants to appeal to all races, and say that he shouldn't be judged based solely on his skin colour. This video always demonstrates a unique Michael Jackson dance routine which is something that is repeated heavily in all of his music videos.

Finishing Our Music Video

Today, we was able to finish the editing of our music video. As a group, we are really happy with the final project and are confident about how successful it has been. The above process shows us exporting our music video out of Adobe Premier Pro.

Rough Cut of Our Music Video

This is the rough cut of our music video. We have almost completed the production of our music video and this shows our progress so far. However, we feel that there is definitely room for improvement so we will be editing a rough cut video by changing a few shots, and adding a few shots in, in order to make our video better.

Editing Update 3

Editing Update 3

With our third editing session, we noticed that one of our guitar performance scenes didn't look right. In order to fix this, we had to re-record a few scenes and then put them into our video in order to make the video look right. In the screenshot above, this is the scene that we re-recorded. We feel that this made our video better, as it made the guitar playing look more realistic. This shot is used at the start of the video, and also we put the song title, and name of the band in the bottom left corner. We repeated this in one of the last shots of the video.

Filming Status/Digipak Planning

After our successful filming trip to London last Wednesday, we believe that we have all the shots necessary that we need to finish our music video. All we have to do now is to edit all of the shots together in order to make our video as good as it can be. We also started thinking about the production of our digipak, and thought about using some of the pictures that we took in London. We feel that we could some of these pictures in our digipak as it would make for a good location, and it could be used to find our target audience of late teens/young adults. Some of the pictures that we took were designed to portray our group as being serious, but also being jokey at the same time. We took some shots of where we was being pretty silly, and some of where we was being very serious while looking at the camera.

Audience Research

Audience Research

Before we make our music video, we will need to do some audience research. We will have to find out information about our audience before we make music video because we will be able to know what they like and what kind of music videos will appeal to them. It is important that we do this well so we know what features people will like so we can put them in our video to appeal to our audience. By doing this, we will be able to appeal to our target audience, and also try to be able to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. We have to make sure that when we conduct our audience research, that we ask suitable questions and ask the right kinds of questions which makes sure that we get the suitable information that we need in order for our audience research to be useful and for us to use it well. Examples of these questions include:

• Do you watch music videos?
• What kind of music do you listen to?
• What is your age?
• How do you listen to music?
• What makes a great music video?

There are many types of ways of which we can conduct audience research. Some of the ways of which we can do audience research are:

• Surveys
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Vox Pops

Vox Pops 

A vox pop is a type of audience research. Usually, there are personally filmed interviews which are conducted in public places.

This is the audience research that we have done as a group. We have done this so we can find out information about our potential audience, and what kind of people that they are. We will use the information that we will receive from people who complete this questionnaire in order to be able to target the correct audiences. 

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Sexism in Pop Videos

Sexism and Laura Mulvey

In the music industry, there are a lot of issues to do with sexism, especially with women. A lot of the sexism issues are based on how men are presented and how women are presented. The women are treated a lot differently to the men. With regards to this, Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory is very important with dealing with issues of  sexism as much of her theory covers the way that women are treated in media texts. One of the more important points with her theory is the male gaze. This means that the media texts are made out to be designed for the viewing of males, and not the viewing of females. This is why in media texts, women are designed to be "objects of erotic desire" as this is what would appeal more to the majority of men, and therefore they would want to see that more. Even when women consume media texts, they have to watch it from a male point of view as they are forced to watch the exposure of women. Laura Mulvey says that women have 2 roles within a narrative: To be an erotic object for characters within the text or To be an erotic object for the audience consuming the text. Women are simply seen as sexual objects and are relegated from their human status. They are objectified as just an object used by men to be enjoyed. Women are also presented to be weak, and needs saving by a male character, and are irrelevant without the main character. The female characters are known as passive as they are under control by the males are present subject to the male gaze. In most texts, women slow the narrative down and are unable to add meaning to the plot. They have no agency. Most texts live in a world of Patriarchal Society in which men are in control.




The song "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus is a song and video which has caused issues to do with sexism in video. A lot of the video is spent with her being sexual, and naked. She is seen to be naked while swinging on a wrecking ball, and she is seen to be licking a sledgehammer in a very seductive manner. This pop video was able to cause controversy because of what she is doing, and the messages that it would send to young kids. I think that Miley Cyrus made this video because she wanted to show that she is her own person, and that she isn't controlled by anyone but herself. She wants to show that she is an independent woman, and she's not the young girl anymore. She wants to get rid of her Hannah Montana young girl image, and wants to be known as her own woman who is able to make her own decisions. I think this video is quite unique in the way that I think that she is exploiting, and is being exploited at the same time. I think she is exploiting the music industry because she is doing something unique and being controversial about it, thus creating interest in her, and therefore giving her more chance of achieving revenue. On the other hand, I think she is being exploited, as she is using her body to appeal to the audience, and making herself look like an object of erotic desire. She is exposing herself in order to appeal to a wider audience, by having less clothes on her. The mise-en-scene is used a lot in this video, especially with the costumes and props. With the props, she is seen to be performing sexual acts on them, and with the costumes, she's mostly naked which completely exposes her. There is an amplified relation of visuals to music video, as she is constantly shown to be sitting on the wrecking ball.





Another example of a video which creates sexism issues within the music industry is the song "Hard Out Here" by Lily Allen. Laura Mulveys theory can definitely be applied to this music video as most of this video is with lots of women being half naked dancing in sexual ways, and making themselves to be sexual objects, and objects of erotic desire. Lily Allen once said that she wanted have a more feminist society, but this video makes her seem like a bit of a hypocrite as she is using ideas that she doesn't agree with in order to be popular with audiences. Lily Allen is sexualising women by having them in their video and by making themselves to be objects. This is not a feminist video, and completely does the opposite as it is inviting the male gaze to be active. This video makes women look like objects and doesn't achieve her purpose of living in a more feminist society. The mise-en-scene is most effective here, as the costumes are very limited and there isn't much of it, which allows for the women to be able to expose themselves and make them be objects. The lyrics of the song kind of match the song because she says she doesn't want to be in the kitchen, and she wants to be in the studio, which is where she spends the majority of her time.





This video is also controversial when it comes to dealing with sexism issues because of the way that women are treated in this video. The main character is shown to be very dominant over the women and so much so that they are in his control. They are doing what he wants them to do which shows that he is dominant over them. Also, the women in the video are wearing very little clothing (if any at all) which he is fully clothed which again is able to show his dominance. This women are wearing this little clothing and are therefore responsible for being the objects of erotic desire for the male gaze, which is agreeing with Laura Mulveys theory. There are different versions of this video because one of them is very extreme, and has the women being 100% naked, and other versions which are not quite as extreme. I believe that different versions of this video were made, because i believe that the version which shows all of the girls being naked was the original version, but then they realised that it wouldn't be suitable for all audiences at all times so they should make a version of which would be watered down. In terms of Goodwin, the girls in the video have a dance routine which is a characteristic of his theories.