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

Additional media technologies used in evaluation stages:
* Wondershare Video Editor - To construct the final video of evaluation question 4. Able to embed images and audio files to create final video then render.
* Prezi - Construct evaluation question 2

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

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once the music video was completed, we needed to receive audience feedback in order for us to know if there was anything we could improve and general thoughts and ideas from the audience to see if they matched the conventions we aimed to convey. In order to get a wider audience demographic for feedback, we created a questionnaire using surveymonkey.com and posted it on social networking sites with the link to the music video, as well as written questionnaires with the same questions to give to our media class and other students who watched our final product in class.

 

In addition to the questionnaire on surveymonkey.com we asked a few people to just comment generally on the what they thought of out final media product. Here is a response from a viewers perspective in our media class. Overall we were quite glad with this response as we achieved what we aim to do with Esther's fan base, which was to invoke an emotional response from the viewers and allows our teenage demographic to be able to relate to the narrative and lyrics of the song. Also the comment about the stability of the camera was not intentional, we just struggled to stabilise that one scene, but the perspective that was given about how it reflected the instability of the relationship is a thought to take in and could have been considered as an idea for our video. Below the first video is another response, from a critical media perspective which was given by our media teacher. This response reflects a more in depth view of our final media product, both the music video and the two ancillary tasks. Again we are happy with the response given here as it adheres to our aims regarding its consistency, research and construction of the product. The improvements regarding the colours on the poster were understandable as it could of made it stand out more yet we chose the black and white theme to match the mood and emotion of the song.

 

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

With an original product in the creative field of music videos (which can enormously diverse) we felt that there were no constraints or restrictions. However, when promoting a new artist with an unknown song in a saturated market of acoustic singers, we felt it was important to hook the viewers with the recognisable ingredients. Therefore, our aim was to match many conventions, knowing the industry want this new product to be memorable. The song itself is classic in its construction and meaning, as well as the traditional narrative to help ‘sell’ this product. Viewers also need, primarily to familiarise themselves with this new artist, as she will be the face that they search for when sourcing the song they buy. As a vocalist who is also the songwriter, establishing credibility is important, so we aimed to place her in her natural setting of a studio, with her acoustic guitar and minimal intrusion. From existing videos, it is clear that audiences invest in this unplugged and raw image of their favourite artist. So we met conventions by filming Esther up close, with guitar and performing her song. As a ‘credible’ artist we aimed to dismiss Mulvey’s Male Gaze sensationalism by bringing down her appearance to a conservative, black polo neck and minimal make-up. This highlights her youth and fresh faced-ness but also conveys the message that she takes her music seriously. We feel the intended audience would appreciate this as a sharp departure from products by artists like Miley, Beyoncé and other more packaged artists. With regards to the narrative that merges with the performance, we have listened to the lyrics and echoed the meaning in a silent, dialogue free narrative. We knew that with the fairytale theme behind our lyrics, our narrative would need to comply with the conventions of verisimilitude; this lead us to form a reality based on the idea of fairytale and the story they hold. Our test audiences immediately made the links between the story and the song, which gave an emotional depth to the piece. Our use of black and white/monochrome editing implies a sense of retrospective reflecting the past memories shown through the narrative which we were inspired by in The Script’s music video, ‘Six Degrees of Separation’. This subtle decision appears to be very effective and also highlights the vibrancy of the singer’s appearance when in full colour. We aimed to suit the contemporary lifestyle of our audience through our narratives development. The taking of ‘selfies’, the school backdrop, places the viewer in a teenage mind set which is very appropriate for the artist’s intended fan base. We felt that many music videos can feel very ‘fashionable’ which is always something that makes the video long-lasting, whereas we know our artist might take a while to ‘make a break’ so the video must work over a longer period of time.  

The Final Product! + Behind the Scenes (02/03/2015)

 

Here is our final media product; If Fairytales Exist by Esther Putzgruber

Our initial idea for the final product consisted of split screen effects, just like in our inspiration video, Six Degrees of Separation by The Script. However, after researching long on YouTube, watching tutorials about Adobe Premier Pro and how the effects work, we couldn't understand how to add the split screen effect and eventually decided to not use it. Though it would of made our product more effective, the black and white narrative alongside the monochrome effect on Esther, continues to maintain the emotions that lie behind the song, which is our main aim.

 

 

We thought that creating a 'Behind the Scenes' video would give an insight as to how it was filming and recording the song and that even though a lot of hard work was put into our final product, we enjoyed the process. The process of creating Esther's song and focus reflects her character and passion for her music which we hope can relate to teenage musicians, attracting a wider audience to Esther and her music.

Construction of Magazine Poster (08/01/2015)

The second ancillary task from the music video brief is to create a magazine advertisement for the DigiPak. As part of our research into CD/DigiPak ads in magazines, we looked at Madonna's ad for her album 'Celebration' and also Florence + The Machine, 'Lungs'. We chose these two because of the contrast between them.

This first magazine ad primarily focuses on the mis-en-scene and the effects of colour in contrast to its DigiPak. Although, the ad is more darkened than the original DigiPak design, we are easily able to relate it back. The use of the font for the title 'Lungs' and the description of the actual CD being a vinyl, relates to the old and vintage looking style font; Times New Roman. The title also relates to the image of the lungs that have been enhanced on the girls body on the front cover.




The second advertisement we looked at was Madonna's release of her album 'Celebration'.
In contrast to the first advertisement we looked at the advert for this album is a lot different than its CD cover; it doesn’t feature the CD on the front and doesn’t follow the same colour scheme.
However, Madonna herself is placed in the centre of the advert just like first ad. What I liked about this ad personally, was the way smaller images of herself merged transparently into the bigger picture of her. This is effective because it instantly makes people take a second look at the advert and the colour scheme which is quite bold and eye catching. The image instantly reflects her character and her want to be in the 'spotlight' which is supported by the black background emphasising the flashy neon-like colours.
The title of the artists name is in a similar style to the CD cover, both made to stand out the name of the artist, again reflecting her personality. The layout and themes for both are simple yet effective.
When creating our magazine poster, I used the idea of Esther being the centre of the ad just like any artist wanting to stand out. I wanted to use the image transparency effect to embed her face from the front cover of the DigiPak on a background that stands out yet also reflects the acoustic sound of her song; something simple, yet effective.

Edited on Adobe Photoshop

Final Edit on Microsoft PowerPoint & Adobe Photoshop

Due to the dark, two-tone colour scheme we had, we decided to stick with that throughout the whole theme of the poster; just as the features were similar on the Madonna ad and cover, yet still eye-catching, we stuck to a black and white colour scheme for the ad and colour for the DigiPak. 

 

Filming Session 3 & DigiPak Finalised (05/01/2015)

Our final filming session consisted of the last scenes of Esther from different angles to add to the final media product. This wide shot of Esther allows the viewers to capture a lonely atmosphere that matches to the lyrics of the song. Also the mis-en-scene in this shot rebels against the theory of 'The Male Gaze' as it is quite dull and dark. The only part of this image which stands out is her guitar which represents importance her music is to her, rather than the focus being on herself



The shot of her strumming on the acoustic guitar emphasises that genre of her original song and how the melody of her music flows with a fairytale theme through both the song and narrative.

As I had mentioned when researching DigiPak's, the concept of the design reflects the personality of the artist as well as their music style and other personal aspects. Originally we agreed to a black and white effect throughout the DigiPak which relates to the final media product. However, we thought as well as expressing the emotions through the simplicity of the colours, we also needed to represent the boldness of the artist through colour, which is why this is the final draft for our DigiPak. The use of the bright and bold colours on the front cover and inside cover adds a glamorous look to the image of a new and upcoming artist, as well as the black and white, which represents a sense of mystery and deep thought reflected from the artist. We used the idea of collaged images of Esther from Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience album, to invoke the personal aspect on the DigiPak, as it can attract a younger audience who can look up to Esther as a role model and favourite singer.