Evaluation Question 4 (Prezi)

Evaluation Question 2 (Prezi)

Evaluation Question 1

I was asked along with my group members Beau Abery and Cara Gaffney to create a music video. We had to choose a specific music genre and then pick an artist and one of their songs to create a video for. As a group we decided to recreate the music video to “Turn Back Time” by Sub Focus, which is from the dance genre. Within my group my I was assigned the role of time management which meant that I had to organise group meetings and the deadlines for filming. I was also assigned the role of researching conventions within the dance genre. From being given this role I learnt a lot as I was able to identify what conventions we needed to include within our music video. I believe that we worked very efficiently as a group as we communicated well throughout the whole process and each member was aware of their specific roles.

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

A music video is a production that goes with a specific song and it is used to entice the audience. It gives the audience a further insight into the song and also the artist, helping them create relationships and attachments. Music videos are often packed with codes and conventions that help them conform to their specific genre. These codes and conventions can come in the form of clothing, lighting, cinematography etc. Music videos usually fall into one of three styles, narrative, performance or concept. The dance genre consists of many generic conventions that are often followed. One convention that we often see within dance music videos is the use of strobe lighting. We discovered that the dance genre uses a lot of strobe lighting when analysing various dance videos such as “My Love” when we can see an abundance of flashing lights during the club scene; here we see the camera going through the night club and strobe lights are repeatedly flashing. This is frequently displayed during club scenes within dance music videos as it enables the audience to feel although they are in a club and they can therefore relate with the music more. We decided to use this convention in order to appeal to our target audience by helping them feel although they are in a club. This can be seen within my music video when my artist, DJ Sonic, is performing to a crowd on the DJ decks and we included the strobe light effect by adding flashing lights on Final Cut. During this scene the audience can see a variety of low and high angle shots showing DJ Sonic behind a computer performing. Through including strobe lighting here we have enticed an audience that are appealed to the dance genre as strobe lighting goes well with the fast beat of the music.

Another convention which is often seen within dance music videos is that they are regularly performance based throughout. This was evident when we researched the music video “Hideaway” by Kiesza. Throughout the video the artist is performing by dancing on the street. This helps the audience engage with the music and they can feel although they are watching the artist perform, helping them idolise the artist even more. Furthermore, through keeping the music video performance based throughout, it keeps the audience entertained as they always have something to watch. As a group we decided to challenge this convention by including a narrative within our music video. This narrative interweaved with the performance aspect of our video as it showed how two people who fell out of love wished they could turn back time. The audience can see the narrative part of our music video when we show the male characters life juxtaposed against the female characters life as they have both taken different paths. This is evident as the female character is homeless and the male character is shown commuting to work. We decided to challenge this convention as we thought that it would make our music video unique and that this would appeal to our target audience.

Another convention of the dance genre is fast paced paced editing. This was evident within Calvin Haaris' music video Bounce. Within this music video we see a selection of different shots put together in quick succession. This increases the pace of the video and made it match the fast paced music. We took inspiration from this music video and incorporated fast paced editing into our music video. This can be seen during the club scene when my artist is performing on the DJ decks in front of his fans. Here we see a variety of different shots of our artist performing. We decided to conform to this convention as we felt that it helped create a link between the music and the visuals. We also thought that by including fast paced editing that we helped incorporate energy into the production, and this is another convention of the dance genre. We created fast paced editing on final cut pro X by reducing the timing of shots to speed them up. We then cut some of the shots to make them shorter.

Whilst researching and analysing existing dance music videos we discovered the conventional clothing that artists wore in their music videos. For example in Avicii's music video Levels he is wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. We decided to conform to these conventions in our music video by dressing our artist in a plain black t shirt, sunglasses and a red baseball cap. This attire helps audiences recognise him as a DJ, making it conventional to the dance genre. Furthermore this clothing helps create a cool representation of our artist and the target audience can therefore idolise him. Furthermore this clothing helps keep the artists identity hidden. This creates a mysterious identity about our artist, leaving the audience wanting to find out more about him.

When analysing Flo Rida's video Club Cant Handle Me I discovered that there was a lot of low key lighting during the club scenes. We found that this was a convention that existed in a lot of dance music videos. We included it within our music video during our club scenes. This can be seen when our artist is performing and there is low key lighting. This low key lighting helped to create the club setting and help the audience to feel involved in the club scene. We created this convention on final cut Pro X by reducing the lighting by 20%. I believe that this worked well within our music video as it helps to create the dance atmosphere which is what our target audience want to see.

Another convention which is seen in dance videos is dancing. This was evident in Alesso's Under Control when we can see a lot of people dancing in the club. We decided to follow this convention in our music video by making our artist dance whilst performing. Through conforming to this convention we added a performance style to our music video which helped to keep the audience entertained. Furthermore it allows our audience to relate to our artist as they are likely to want to dance whilst watching the music video. This convention also helps create the club atmosphere.

The ancillary part of our project required us to create a magazine album advert and a digipak for our chosen artist. I researched many existing digipaks and album adverts from the dance genre, I found that there were a lot of conventions. For example when looking at David Guetta’s digipak I discovered that a lot of bright colours were used. These can be seen on the front cover of the digipak where the colours red yellow and green are used, and they are used to replicate the bright lighting that is often seen within dance environments; this helps the audience identify that it is from the dance genre. Within my ancillary I also wanted to make it conventional as possible so that it would entice fans of the genre. This is evident on our digipak where we used bright and illuminous colours against a dark background. We used the colours pink and blue and increased their brightness using the brightness tool on photoshop. I believe these bright colours against a dark background replicated a club like atmosphere and allow an audience to identify which genre it is from.

When researching and analysing existing magazine adverts I discovered a lot of conventions for the dance genre. We looked at Calvin Haaris’ magazine advert for his new album, and I discovered that glasses and headphones were extremely conventional. On the advert, Calvin Haaris is shown wearing sunglasses and headphones; this allows consumers to identify him as a DJ and they can therefore tell that the album is likely to be from the dance genre. I wanted to incorporate this convention into our magazine advert in order to make it as conventional to the genre as possible. As a result of this we made sure that our artist was wearing sunglasses during the photo shoot. We also wanted to make him wear baseball cap as we thought that this also matched our genre well. Through using sunglasses and a baseball cap in our magazine advert we kept our artists identity hidden, which is often seen in the dance genre. This urges the audience and consumers to find out more about the artist by purchasing their products.

The majority of our music video conforms to the conventions of the genre as we can see a lot of generic dance conventions. These are seen in the form of mise en scene mostly and help engage an audience that are fans of the dance genre. We did however challenge conventions of the genre by inserting two styles in the form of narrative and performance. This goes against what you would usually expect to see within a dance music video but I also believe that it would help appeal to a wider audience.  I believe that the ancillary part of our project was the most conventional to the dance genre. We wanted to make it clear to a consumer that our products were from the dance genre. I believe we succeeded in doing this as our ancillary texts are bright and stand out, which are both characteristics of the dance genre.

Final group ancillary

Rough cut - Miss Georgiou

Audience feedback is importaint to the production of my music video. Creating a rough cut allowed us to show our audience what we had created for our music video, and gain feedback from them. This meant that we could improve on what we had created and make our music video more tailored towards our target audience. We showed our rough cut to a class of other media students, the feedback was fair as there was no bias opinion towards the video. A rough cut is important to make any production the best it can be; by gaining feedback we now know as a group what didn't appeal to the target audience and what we can improve to capture the dance music genre throughout the music video. We are now ready to improve our rough cut music video so that is more effective in attracting  the target audience.

We recieved the feedback from our audience by screening our rough cut in front of the class. After this they was then asked to feedback what went well and what could be improved on.  They would also leave tips and improvements they believed we could make which would keep their attention throughout the final cut. Each group rated our music video out of 40 by using the genuine mark scheme, this highlighted what we needed to include and take out of the production to achieve more marks. The audience we screened our video to are also media students, this meant that they're not only the target audience but they also left feedback that other viewers may not recognise.

The feedback that we have recieved will benefit our production as a whole as we are now aware of what we need to improve on. The feedback has given us a detailed outline on what the target audience thought needed to be improved on. This means we now have directv instructions on what we need to remove and add to our music video.  By getting feedback it really benefits our production, not only ours but also the music industry. By talking to the audience that the videos are made for you can really achieve something that they want to see. Their opinions are the most vital and the music industry will create videos that they know will appeal to the target audience whom actually watch the productions.  By improving the music video according to the feedback it would improve the music industry. The increase in the popularity will also increase the sales and revenue of the product.

Positive comments:
The use of a variety of camera angles - This is an important element in our music video as a variety of different camera angles means that the audience will not get bored of the same shots being used throughout the video. Furthermore it also means that we have portrayed each person within the music video in a different way through the yuse of camera angles.

Conventional to the genre - This comment is very pleasing for us as a group as it means that our music video is attracting fans of the dance genre. This is important for us as it means that the music video successfully targets its audience. We achieved this through a lot of colour tints and fast paced editing.

Good use of editing - The feedback also said that as a group we had a good use of editing throughout the video. The added edits conform to the genre of dance and they also help to set the mood of the video. The colour tints emphasize the mood that is generatedby the images which promotes the use of editing as a positive element within the video. The pace of the editing also matches the pace of the song which keeps the audience engaged and not confused by different timings.

Constructive comments:
Clearer narrative - The audience said that the narrative was unclear at times as it jumped from a narrative to performance. This needs to be improved by making the transuition between the two styles much smoother. The groups said how they enjoyed the narrative scenes that were already included in the video yet more should be put in so that the story becomes clearer.

Repitition - The audience feedback was that the music video became very repetitive, especially in the club scenes. As a groupn we was aware of this because we did not have enough footage to insert in the club scene. As a result of this we used the same shots to fill these gaps. We will improve on this by filming more scenes for the club part of our video.

Shaking of camera - Once again as a group we were aware that some shots were slightly off balance but we wanted to give the audience a feel of what our music video would be about within the rough cut. The rough cut introduces our ideas behind the music video and we will take on board the constructive comments to re film any shots taken without a sturdy tripod. The final cut will include all the positive shots as well as new unique angles and cinematography that will keep the audience engaged and happy with the finished product

Group magazine advert - Miss Miller

My magazine advert:

Cara's magazine advert:

Beau's magazine advert:

Group magazine advert:

As a group we all looked at each of our individual magazine adverts. We then discussed what we thought was good about each one and what we thought could be improved on each one. After this we came to a group decision about what magazine advert we thought was overall strongest and we decided that this was Beau's advert which is the third advert down. Next we had to take the weak points of this magazine advert and try to make them as strong as possible by using mine and Cara's magazine adverts. This meant that we changed the main image on Beaus advert and replaced it with the mirror image used on my advert and also adding an edit to it that Cara created on one of her draft magazine adverts.

Colours:
We kept the black background that was featured in Beau's magazine advert and also used in my one. We thought this was the best colour to use for the background as it allows the rest of the information on the advert to stand out much more. This means that it is more likely to attract the eye of the target audience. We also used this as oppose to Cara's multi-coloured background as we thought that using a variety of different colours in the background caused the advert to become overcrowded. For the pattern at the bottom of our magazine advert we decided to use the colours bright pink and bright blue. As a group we thought that these colours went well against the dark background and also enabled the magazine advert to stand out and catch the eye of the consumer. Furthermore the use of the colours blue and pink keep a consistency between the groups digipak and the magazine advert. This allows the consumer to relate these colours with our artist making him more recognisable.

Conventions of genre:
I believe that the magazine advert that we have created as a group conforms to the conventions of the dance genre in a variety of ways. The colours that we have chosen represent the dance genre very well in my opinion. They are bright and edgy, both of these a things that come to mind when you think of the dance genre. Furthermore the colours are often used in strobe lighting in clubs, which again are heavily related to the dance genre. Therefore the use of these colours will make the audience think of the dance genre and they will be able to identify the magazine advert as being from the dance genre. I also believe the name of the album makes the advert conventional to the genre. The name "Euphoria" connotes a feeling of happiness and joy and I also believe that it matches the conventions of the genre very well. I also believe the name will attract fans of the dance genre as it is clear that the album is from the dance genre.

Images:
I believe that the images that we have chosen in our magazine advert are very effective. I think the picture of our artist attracts the target audience very well as the artist appears to be powerful making him appeal to the target audience. Furthermore the artist is looking directly down the camera, this allows the target audience to create a relationship with the character. I think the black and white edit that we have used on the image works very well as it portrays our artist as being original and the edit also makes the image stand out and catch the eye. The other image that we have used in our magazine advert is the blue and pink cloud of smoke at the bottom of the page. This image works well with the dance genre as it is bright and edgy which are both related to the dance genre. Furthermore the cloud of smoke helps represent the artist as being more powerful as he seems almost majestic.

Layout and design:
The layout and design was important for our magazine advert. We decided to put the artist name at the bottom of the page where the cloud of smoke is as we thought the two worked well together. I also believe placing the two together helps draw the target audiences eye to the artist name. We also decided to use the mirror layout out by placing both images opposite eachother, much like they are in my original magazine advert. We thought this worked well as it makes the advert symmetrical and gives the impression of "seeing double" much like you would if you was in a dance environment and drinking alcohol.

Typography:
In terms of the typography for our magazine advert we made it standing out as a priority. Having this in mind, we decided to make all of our font in capital letters. This make the writing more bold and therefore attracts the consumers eye. The first I used was for the name of the album. As you can see it is much larger than the other font as we wanted to make the name of the album stand out the most as the whole idea of the advert is to promote the album. I feel that the font used for the album name is appropriate as it looks powerful and superior.  For the name of our artist we used an edgy font as we thought that it goes well with the name of my artist "DJ Sonic". The font also is conventional of the dance genre as it looks very futuristic and electronic which are both elements of dance.

Language:
We kept the amount of language on our magazine advert as minimal as possible because we did not want to overcrowd it with information as we thought it could deter the consumer. So we decided to include only the artist name, album name and information about when the album is released and what song is included on it. We thought this was the only important information that the consumer needed to know.

Caras strengths: 
We thought that overall Cara's magazine advert was probably the best as it really catches the target audiences eye as it is brightest and stands out most. We also thought that the use of clocks worked really well with the name of the song on the album "Turn Back Time". However it was hard to incorporate any of her ideas as we thought the advert was least conventional to the dance genre and it was important that we had a magazine advert that conformed to the conventions of the genre.

Beaus strengths:
The strengths in Beaus advert was the cloud of smoke at the bottom of the image. We felt that this image worked really well with the dance genre and helped attract the target audience as it is bright and therefore stands out. We also thought that his layout was most effective as it looked least cluttered. The weaknesses in Beaus advert were in his main image. We felt that the image of the artist was too dull and did not project him in the light we wanted to. 

Conclusion:
To conclude, I believe that as a group we have created a very effective magazine advert. I feel that each member of the group contributed good ideas to make the advert stand out. I also believe that the advert conforms to the conventions of the dance genre in a variety of ways. This helps our magazine advert appeal to the target audience as they will be able to see that it clearly comes from the dance genre. I found that we worked as a group really well as we all listened to eachothers ideas and took the criticism to our own adverts really well. This meant we was able to create a good group advert.

Individual digipak - Miss Miller

We was given the task to create an individual digipak for our artist. A digipak is a style of CD which provides the audience with a better understanding of the artist as it gives them more images and a letter from the artist to their fans. Creating the digipak allowed us to connect with our target audience well and make sure that a relationship was created between the two. We also created the digipak so that we could demonstrate our skills in portraying our artist and our genre to the target audience.

Colours:
The colours used in a digipak are very important in making it successful as they are one of the main elements that will make it conventional to the genre or not. I have chosen to use the colour black as my background for each section of my digipak, I chose this as I believe that it allows the rest of the content on my digipak to stand out well. Furthermore the colour black makes it conventional to the dance genre as it represents night and this is something that is related to the dance genre as music videos in the dance genre are often filmed in nightclubs. I have also used the colour red quite frequently in my digipak, I chose this colour for my artists clothing such as his baseball cap and tshirt. I believe the colour red is a symbol for passion and love which will both make my artist seem more appealing to the target audinece and they will be more enticed to purchase the product. I have also used the colours blue and pink in my second section of my digipak, I included these colours as I have also used them in my magazine advert and I felt that including them would make it consistent. On top of this, the electric blue and pink colours represent my artist as being edgy and I feel this will appeal to my target audience.

Conventions of genre and images used:
The digipak I have created is in my opinion conventional to the dance genre in a variety of ways. Firstly the name of the album "Euphoria" is conventional to the genre as it connotes a feeling of happiness, which is something that is related to dance music as it makes people feel upbeat. I also believe that the images I have included in my digipak make it conventional to the dance genre. In the image used on the first section my artist is shown wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. Both of these pieces of iconography are related to the dance genre and DJ's are often shown wearing them whilst they are performing. Another piece of iconography that I have used on my artist is headphones; again this is very conventional of the dance genre as DJ's use headphones to perform. In using an image of our artist wearing headphones the target audience are clearly able to see that it is from the dance genre. The image of the sound monitor with a heart in the middle also makes my digipak conventional to the dance genre as sound monitors are often used and related to DJ's. The use of the heart in the middle also links to the album name "Euphoria" which also connotes love. This means that there is a relationship between the images I have used and the name of the album, this will appeal to the target audience.

Layout and design:
I believe that the layout and design of a digipak is important in order for it to appeal to its intended audience. I did not want to overcrowd my digipak with images and text as I thought that this would deter people from the product. Instead I attempted to keep it as plain as possible as I felt this would appeal to the eye much more. I used minimal text on my main cover of the digipak including just the artist name and the album name and I positioned both of these at the top of the page and in the centre of two as I believe it stood out most here. In terms of the design I wanted to keep it symmetrical on the main cover of the digipak, so I used two identical images either side of the page. I believe this kept the front cover looking professional and also gives the effect of "seeing double" just like you would if you had been drinking in a club. On the tracklist of my digipak, again I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so I just put the names of the songs in a simple order making it clear for the target audience to see what is featured in the album. I used the pink and blue electricity image at the top of my tracklist to make it more appealing to the eye and make it look like it is from the dance genre. Furthermore this image kept my digipak and magazine advert in relation as the same image was used in my magazine advert.

Typography:
The typography for my digipak was important as I wanted it to stand out and attract the eye of the audience. For the name of my artist I used an edgy font as I believe that it goes well with the name of my artist "DJ Sonic". The font also is conventional of the dance genre as it looks very futuristic and electronic which are both elements of dance. Furthermore I have also used this font on my album cover and this therefore means that there is some consistency between the products allowing them to be more recognisable to the consumer. The typography used for my album name is much more plain and simple which I believe creates a good contrast. The plain and simpleness of this font also means that it stands out more as it is easier for the consumer to read. I have also used capital letters for my album and artist name to further emphasise them. The typography for my tracklist is the same for each song. I did this in order to create a consistency and make it clear to the audience what is featured within the album. The colour of the font is white against a black background, again this makes the songs clear to the consumer and they can therefore see what is included in the album and this is more likely to persuade them to purchase it. In the letter to the artists fans I used the same font as the artist name to make sure that the letter had a personal touch to it and then the target audience would be able to build more of a relationship with the artist. Finally I used a signature on the letter to my fans and this was handwritten by myself. Again his makes it more personal to the artist and the consumers will feel like the digipak is giving them an exclusive look into his life.

Language: 
The language used in a digipak as it is what is going to persuade the consumer to purchase it or not. Firstly we have the artist name "DJ Sonic", which is likely to persuade dance fans to purchase the digipak as it is clear that it is from the dance genre and the connotations of the word "Sonic" is fast paced and upbeat music which is likely to appeal to a dance genre audience. The album name "Euphoria" also gives the audience a hint that it is from the dance genre as it connotes happiness and love. In the letter to the artists fans I used collective lexis such as "all" to make it clear to the audience that he is thanking them for helping him become what he is. I have also used the term "like a rollercoaster" to describe his career so far. I believe that the word rollercoaster goes well with the dance genre as it connotes speed and excitement. Finally I added an "x" at the end of the letter to the fans to show to the audience that the artist loves his fans and ares about them, which will urge them to create a relationship with the artist. 

Using photoshop:
I found using photoshop quite difficult when it came to putting an image onto my CD disc. I struggled with this as there was so many different layers and the CD disc was an awkward shape to project an image onto. To overcome this I fiddled about with the different layers and managed to put the image on in the end. I also struggled with cutting out the image of the heartbeat monitor. I struggled with this as it is an awkward image to cut out as the part of the image I needed was so small. To overcome this I used the rubber tool on the smallest setting and managed to erase all the unwanted parts of the image. I feel that the strength I had in photoshop was editing the images that I had taken. I found it easy as I just altered the brightness and other aspects of the image. This allowed me to create an image that was conventional to the genre and one that also stood out on the magazine advert. This strength helped me create a successful magazine advert as the image is the focal point of any advertisement as it is what catches the eye of the target audience. Also this allowed me to portray my artist effectively as diverse and surreal. 

Conclusion:
In conclusion, I feel that the individual digipak that I have created conforms well to the conventions of the dance genre. I believe it does this in a variety of ways such as the use of bright colours against a dark background making it stand out to the eye. Furtehrmore I believe that the images and language that I have included make it clear that the digipak is from the dance genre. I also believe that my digipak appeals well to the target audience as it is clear to them that it is from the dance genre. This means that they will be more likely to buy the digipak as my target audience are people who like the dance genre. In addition I believe that the letter to the fans that I have included make the digipak more personal to the fans and this is likely to appeal to them. Overall I believe that creating individual digipaks will benefit our group as a whole as we will be able to combine all of our ideas into one and create a digipak that appeals to our audience in every aspect.