Evaluation Question 4

I took on the role of demonstrating this question and to do this I created a timeline on www.timetoast.com to connote the process of all the functions that we came across during our process of the music video. I included imagery and a description on how we used the different technologies.

Here is the link to my timeline: http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/what-functions-on-these-became-essential-to-the-creation-of-your-products

Evaluation - Question 3

For one part of our evaluation Ishpreet Sundal and I decided to create a news report to help us answer our question, while answering our question I typed up our answer into www.cueprompter.com in order to help Ishpreet answer the following question so that it was easier for her to read out the answer to the question

Below is one of the questions in which we uploaded via YouTube to help us evaluate our piece. 

                                     

Evaluation Question 2

As Rumena had completed the digipak she has conducted the evaluation question for this using 'Prezi', below is the embedded prezi in which she created.

Evaluation Question 1

When it came to conducting our evaluation we as a group decided to split the roles of each question.
Q1- Ishpreet Sundal
Q2- Rumena Ahmed
Q3- Chloe Connell & Ishpreet Sundal
Q4- Chloe Connell

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

To answer this question my group member Ishpreet, gathered screenshots of our music video and applied them to www.dipity.com. By doing this helped her analyse the ways in which we had conformed to the pop conventions by giving a brief description for each post. Once she had gathered this we found that we had successfully fitted the most common and typical conventions of a pop music video which was one of our main focusses. Using this Ishpreet has highlighted the pop conventions used in our music video e.g. the Party scene which she gave a a brief discussion on how we interpreted this into our video. We developed this into our video by using a variety of different party scenes in different locations which reinforces the convention of party scenes. From our previous research into pop conventions helped us when constructing our music video and evaluation as we tried use the forms of conventions continuously through our music video. 

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

Final Titles

After me and my group member Ishpreet Sundal successfully finished editing our music video on Final Cut Pro we then uploaded it to YouTube, below is our finished music video.





Produced by: Chloe Connell & Ishpreet Sundal
Edited by: Chloe Connell & Ishpreet Sundal
Directed by: Ishpreet Sundal & Chloe Connell

Our Final Magazine Advertisement

After we had looked at the magazine advertisements created by Rumena Ahmed, me and my group member Ishpreet decided to create our own magazine advertisement using 'Pages' and 'Adobe Photoshop', we used some of the conventions Rumena made and added some of our own such as the release date. When creating this we had to make sure we conformed to the pop conventions. After we did our digipak research we gathered that typography was important when creating ours as Kesha has her own stylistic font, we then incorporated this into our magazine advertisement so that it fitted her stylistic conventions. We included quite a bright pink background which subverts Kesha's stylistic features as she usually tends to use quite dull colours however we found that it was very common for other pop artists such as Little Mix.Using 'Pages' allowed us to edit our typography in the way we wanted too, we added a drop shadow to the title of the song and around some other texts in or to make it stand out, we also enhanced the 'C' on our song title in order to enhance it as it fits Kesha's crazy style. We also decided to have our song name in blue as it enhanced the 'CRAZY KIDS' written onto the red cup so that we could enhance the colour.

From our advertisement research we found that conventionally many artists such as 'Rihanna' appear to include the front cover of their album onto their advertisement, we have taken this into consideration and decided to export our song cover onto our advertisement which will help the audience know which CD cover we are advertising when it comes to purchasing the item. 

Chloe & Ishpreet Final Digipak

Digipack Promotional Advert Research

For this task we had to compare the use of two Magazine advertisements, to do this me and my group member decided to analyse one magazine advertisement each. Digipack promotional adverts are important when creating a digipack as they help advertise upcoming albums for there target audiences.

For my digipack promotional advert research I chose to use to look into 'Rihanna's' - Loud she follows many typical conventions of the pop genre for the audience to expect to see.

• The digipack consists of vibrant colours in order to attract attention
• The album title is called 'Loud', this is juxtaposed by the use of visual images as she appears to have her fingers over her lips signifying to 'shh'
• An image of her album cover so that the audience know which album she is referring to and advertising
• The use of typography to connote 'OUT NOW' so that the audience know when they can access the digipack
• Close up of her face is used similarly on the album cover connoting her in a sexual desire reinforcing Laura Mulvey's male gaze
• Similar use of vibrant colour of red is dennoted through he magazine advertisement and album cover

Ishpreet Sundal then analysed a digipack promotional advert for Britney Spears:

Here are the main things that we as an audience are presented with:

• The name of the artists ('Britney Spears'), in large capitalised font. It is shown in through a bright and vibrant colour, which indicates that they are the main focus of the advertisement.
• The release date and name of the album
• A hit single which the audience may be familiar with
• A large proportion of the page is dedicated to an image of the artist
• The image is quite sexualised: Britney appears to be showing a lot of skin, as well as directly looking into the camera which connotes her confidence
• The font and theme of the advertisement is similar to the digipak
• The theme of album name 'Circus' is expressed through the colour choice, and layout of the font

Digipak & Magazine Advertisement & Sketches

From doing research from the pop genre we found that it is very conventional for many artists to produce digipacks for their albums, Rumena Ahmed decided to take on the role of creating these to help fit our target audience.

Here is our first version of our digipak and magazine advertisement for our music video, we have followed some of conventions used on a Kesha digipak by the use of vibrant mixed colours and also the use of the props such as a red cup connoting that she may be having a party. The use of typography on our digipak denotes her artist style as being quite edgy which was very important when creating the digipak.

Below is one of the digipak and magazine advertisement that Rumena has created

When creating the digipak Rumena Ahmed created a video showing her step by step process of editing the digipak pictures below is the YouTube video in which she downloaded softwares such as quicktime, in which she was able to record her entire editing process allowing the audience to see her process to get to her final digipak.

Digipak & Magazine Sketches

When it came to planning the digipak, Rumena had to ensure she had a rough idea of what she wanted to do, to help her do this she created sketches and annotated them in order to make sure they fitted the pop convention. Once she had done this she then uploaded them onto SlideShare. 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJa4i4irpe0#action=share

Sketches and Planning for Digipack from ahmer007007

Digipak Research

In todays lesson we focussed on the importance and why Digipaks are used, it is a type of packaging and is usually used on limited addition CD's intended for a special purpose.

My first Digipak I have chosen to research is the Katy Perry 'teenage dream' album, it follows the typical conventions of a Digipak such as having six panels in order to connote pictures of the artist using different shots such as a close up and extreme long shot. The use of bright pink colours help relate to Katy Perrys personality and is one of her artist conventions to use a lot of girly colours which also helps appeal to her target audience of being majorly females. The digipack also consits of a tracklist which usually appears on most digipacks to inform the distributers and audience what is featured on the CD so they know what they are buying. The CD also features Katy laying on clouds which repersents one of her well known songs 'Teenage Dream' which most of her audience would be aware of. The digipack also denotes a parental advisory label as her audience may be quite young it informs those that the CD has no use of profanities and is suitable for a younger audience. Katy also appears to be laying in a sexual way, this shows that it would fit Laura Mulveys male gaze which would also suit her male target audience. As we were working in a group I researched my own digipack which is above and below is the research that Ishpreet Sundal has completed for her digipack:

I then went on to researching the conventions of 2pac's digipak, which is an album of his best hits. The first conventional feature on the cover, is the image of what appears to be the top half of 2pac from the back. From this image we can see that he is topless, but is wearing things such as a gold chain and watch. This links in with the hip-hop genre, as this connotes success and masculinity. 
The font used to present 2pac's name, appears to look rough and battered. This may make 2pac seem raw and tough; which also links in with many other artists in the hip-hop genre. In terms of editing, the image of 2pac on the front cover, seems to have a sepia edit. This creates a dim light which emphasises his muscular body, which once again emphasises 2pac's macho persona. The front cover includes a 'parental advisory' label; this enables the audience to know that what they are about to buy may include explicit content.

By researching digipaks of different artists, I was able to see what particular conventions were used to meet a certain genre. The Katy Perry digipak differs greatly from the 2pac digipak. By looking into the 'Teenage Dream' digipak, it will help when creating our own as they both cater for a pop genre. For an example the 'Teenage Dream' digipak used vivid imagery through the use of bright colours. We may also opt to use bright colours for our digipak, in order to make it conventional of a pop genre.

Research to help us towards our final piece

As a group, we decided that we would take screen shots of Kesha's music videos to suggest what we paid homage too and what influenced us to help us get the same similar idea. The screen shots in which I found are what we have included in our music video to help connote the pop convention and relate it to Kesha. We learned from doing this that it can be minor things such as props which can help us to follow the typical 'crazy' themes which are connoted through Kesha's videos.

In this screen shot taken from Kesha - 'Tik Tok' we can see that the people in the background appear to be holding the red party cups which are stereotypically used for American house parties, we took this into consideration and managed to get hold of these props and included them in our video. Below is the screen shot in which I took from our video during the editing process of our music and it also connotes how we as a group have accounted and taken note of minor things Kesha uses in her videos so that we can also do the same.

Below is a screen shot which I took from Kesha's music video 'We R Who We R', there was a large use of party scenes showing everyone going crazy, we used various locations when I was filming the music video we similarly gathered a lot of people together which was one of the difficulties we faced but then we used organisation skills to inform everyone go when and where the filming will be taking place.

Below is the pictures taken from our edited music video in which we have made similar to Kesha's video, below you can see we have used a similar dark filter as we thought that it emphasises it to make it more like a party. We also didn't want this to be too clear as we made it a quick shot just to show the audience what is happening, by making it a fast pace editing, also instills one of the pop conventions and is also commonly used in Kesha's music videos which connotes that she follows the typical pop conventions.

In the picture above, we gathered a variety of students from our sixth form and decided to film everyone going from normal to 'crazy', we done this to create a form of humour to our target audience as in one shot everyone appears to be sitting down bored then quickly cuts to them being wild. This is also connoted in Kesha's music video 'We R Who We R' as there is a lrge use of party scenes, I had already filmed a party scene in a different location so we decided that if we use a variety of party scenes in different locations it will denote the themes of craziness and that she doesn't appear to be a boring person.

Costume List

For our music video Ishpreet Sundal conducted a costume list using Polyvore of the clothes that our main star wore during our video, we used the Polyvore that I had created before in order to help us get an idea of the type of style Kesha would go for. From below you can see there is a variety of different colours and some crazy clothes, this is very typical in a Kesha video and it also helps us convey the narrative of our music video as being very 'crazy' and 'wild'. This was important when contributing to our music video as we will be able to compare these clothes to the ones that Kesha tends to wear and notice how we took this on board and included these in our video. Costumes were also important as it is mainly what the audience is going to see, so when choosing these outfits we wanted our audience to gather that our main star is quite crazy and out going like Kesha.

Music Video Equipment List

Our group decided to come together to create an equipment list in order to help us for our preparation and planning for our music video. We enlisted all the items that we would need so that when we came to filming it would help us remember all the equipment that we need. We made sure we included items that will help show the conventions of a typical Kesha video. This equipment list was created by Ishpreet Sundal but worked together so that we didn't forget anything. This helped us when conforming to our music video as we had listed some of the common props and equipment used in Kesha's music videos and it also helped us when it came to filming as we knew what props we would be using and want to include.

The equipment we will be using are:
-Camera
-Tripod

 -Polaroid camera
-Party poppers
-Disco Ball
-Torch
-Balloons
-Streamers
-Cups
-Glitter
-Punch bowl
-Drinks
-Lab coats
-Ladles
-Beakers
-Tubes
-Make-up
-Mirror
-Spotlights

Risk Assesment

When it came to filming our final piece we as a group had to make sure that we aware of all the upcoming risks and dangers that we could come across. To help connote this Rumena Ahmed constructed a risk assessment grid so that we was aware of the ways in which we could avoid the possible dangers and how we could over come them. This was important for us, our group and our teacher as we had to ensure that we was aware of dangers and that our teacher had confidence in us that we could overcome problems if any came about.
 

Risk assessment A2 MUSIC VIDEO from ahmer007007

Filming Schedule

When it came to our filming process Rumena Ahmed created a filming schedule which informed us of the different locations and shots that we would be filming in the locations. By doing this helped us organise what shots we would be filming in the different locations and made it much easier for us when filming. It was also we did this so we could organise on each day which day we could film in the locations so that everyone in our group was prepared.
 

Filming Schedule for A2 MUSIC VIDEO from ahmer007007

Filming Preparation

While we was filming our music video, Ishpreet Sundal took various pictures of me setting up the cameras and tripods which we need for our music video. I then transfered these pictures onto Fotor Photo Collage to help show the step by step plan of how we got our particular shots. This is also quite conventional for a music video as many videos often show a behind the scenes and how the video has been prepared, in these pictures we can see the equiptment and props that were used in regards to making our music video. These pictures also show the preparation of our video and found that once we have completed our video, we would like to show people the process in creating our final product.

The pictures also show the minor things that make a big difference in our video, as for the bottom middle picture we can see that we had to parton our lead star into making sure that everything was in the right place. When watching the music video many people would think that this can be fairly natural but we had to fit her hair in so that it looked like a suitable shot in the camera. On the top right picture it shows Rumena Ahmed trying to fix the white background so that it fitted with our lighting, we learned that this was important as we had to make sure we had the correct positioning.

Shot List

For our group Ishpreet Sundal created a shot list so that when it came to filming our music video we was able to ensure that we did not miss any important shots that we would need for our music video. This also helped us as we could gather what location we would be in for filming certain parts of the music video and helped us stay organised. We put this together with our storyboard when filming as we got a rough idea of what we wanted to film, the shot list also included everything we would be using for each shot which helped us when it came to planning.

Once she had created the PowerPoint she then uploaded it on to SlideShare as it consisted of a lot of tables.

Shotty from Bryony Johnson

Storyboard

For our planning of our music video I decided to conduct the storyboard on behalf of my group, although we didn't stick to our storyboard completely this helped us when it came to filming as I knew what shots I would have to film and the shot type. Once I had completed the storyboard I uploaded it to SlideShare as it consisted of many pages and thought this would be the better option.

Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze'

While I was creating the costume list and artist biography, my group member Ishpreet Sundal created the ways in which we have incorporated the 'male gaze' theory stated by Laura Mulvey. She has taken screenshots of our music video where we have used the theory and also where it is used in Kesha's music video. We used this extra research at is it a typical pop convention and is also commonly used by Kesha

Below is the research that Ishpreet Sundal conducted:

Laura Mulvey is British feminist as well as film theorist, who introduces the concept of the 'male gaze'. The male gaze refers to the way in which cameras, predominately focus on women as being shown sexual object of desire. By doing this the audience view the female, through the eyes of a heterosexual male. Women can be seen as a sexualised objects in many differing platforms of media, from magazine covers, films, music videos, and so on. This can be done through things such as provocative actions, clothing or even the way men respond or react to women.

Catering for the male gaze is a typical convention of the pop genre. Many female artists such as Katy Perry and Beyoncé, are known for their 'sexiness' and raunchy videos. After viewing various videos of Kesha's (our artist), we could see that many of her music videos also caterers for the male gaze. Below are screen shots from youtube of  Kesha's music videos, which can apply to the male gaze:

The first screen shot is taken from the music video 'We R Who We R'. Kesha is denoted as wearing a provocative American print top, which has a large rip at the chest. This caters for the male gaze, as it enables the audience to catch a glimpse of Kesha's breasts. 

The second screen shot is taken from the music video 'Die young'. Here Kesha is denoted as laying on a mattress in a provocative manner, wearing little clothing. This shot caters for the male gaze, as it emphasises Kesha's legs, breasts and stomach. 

 This research has been helpful in creating our music video. This is as we have learned to incorporated scenes and shots which cater for the male gaze; as this is typical of the pop genre as well as Kesha's 'sexy' image. Below is a screen shot which shows a shot we filmed of the lead (Kala Hill) for our music video. Our lead is denotes as laying on a bed, which is similar to the screen shot above. The shot pays particular focus to Kala's legs, which can be conventional of a pop video. However my group and I were full aware of the possibility, that Kala's shirt may have been too revealing when she was laying down. In order to prevent this, we requested Kala to wear black shorts underneath the shirt. 

Artist Biography

Artist Research

While Ishpreet was creating the Laura Mulvey male gaze I decided to research into Kesha.

Kesha who is also known as Kesha Rose Sebert was born in Los Angeles, California in 1987, she is formally a singer, songwriter and rapper. She had her major breakthrough while appearing in Flo Rida's hit single ''Right Round'', this was then her first major few steps to becoming more famous and getting publicly known worldwide.

Kesha attended Brentwood High school and studied songwriting classes and often learned how to sing many of her mothers Pebe songs and on many occasions started songwriting together, this is how Kesha gathered her passion for music.

http://www.biography.com/people/kesha-562676#awesm=~oB1slULt3tXUMd

Kesha also has featured her own documentary which premiered on MTV which followed her going on her tour and her day to day life. This enabled her fans to gain an insight to her life and see her working in the studios below is the first episode of her documentary which I interpreted for additional research as it allows viewers to see Kesha for what she is like rather than what they read or see about her.

Final Treatment

After we had taken into consideration our draft treatment and padlet, Ishpreet Sundal and I had recognised the changes from our previous treatment and noticed that we wouldn't be able to include all of those ideas. To help us concur this, Ishpreet Sundal created a new treatment using the footage that we have already taken and made it to that it fitted with our music video. From this we learned that we had to change the opening of our music video as now we have our lead actor waking up from one of her 'crazy' nights to replicate and show the themes which we are trying to connote through our music video of her being wild and crazy.

Outline of ideas for music video (narrative, characterisation, concept etc…) Our music video will start of with the female lead, waking up in the evening from intense partying the days before. People  shown doing a unique dance routine; which later in the sequence people are shown doing aswell. Cuts to the lead singing against a starry background, and then cuts to school lab earlier that day of everyone making drinks in a lab (replace alcoholic products). We will ensure to have a close up on this, to make it clear that they are not alcoholic. Then the scene cuts to the female lead and her friends walking to the party and then shots of people in the party, not having a very good time. Thereafter, female lead and her friends put down a large bowl of a substance which then is given to the guests and the party livens up and more funky items are placed in the party to connote that the party was boring before. Female lead and her friend are shown taking shots of the substance.

Resources that will be needed? (actors, props, settings, technical resources) ·      Actors ·      Backdrops/green screen ·      Chemistry lab- lab coats ·      Glitter/make up for actors ·      Costume ·      Big space ·      Lights ·      Mirror ·      Glow in the dark paint/ glow sticks ·      Party decorations

Draft treatment response

Created with Padlet

To help us gather ideas for our music video, Ishpreet Sundal and I set up a padlet in which we got to find out what people outside of our group liked about our draft treatment.

We got our classmates to have a look at our draft treatment and give us their ideas on what they think and how we can improve. We learnt that many of them liked our narrative story and the crazy pop conventions we have included. This is going to impact our music video as it gives us an insight on to what other people like and dislike about our video and how we can improve. It also helps us fit to our target audience as we asked people who are also our main target audience so we had to take on board their comments and make sure that we sure that we stick to them.

Draft treatment analysis

As a class we had a look at everyones draft treatment and picked out the points that were good and ways in which we can improve our ideas for our music video. We gathered that many people really enjoyed the idea of a party scene and they liked this as it followed the typical pop conventions. From gaining other people's idea on how we can improve helped us to be able to change some ideas in which maybe they wouldn't enjoy as much.

We found that they enjoyed that narrative as it was quite fast and up beat which would entertain them however we saw that they didn't want it to seem as too much was going on so as a result we have made the beginning slightly shorter of the main girl getting ready so that it doesn't take up to much time in our music video.

Also from our responses we found that most people were against the use of alcohol, although we wasn't going to use alcohol due to our target audience and age range we are going to have a seen of some of the dancers going into the science lab preparing drinks to make them seem quite rebellious and that they are still in school so the drinks would not be alcoholic.