Final Products

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

I have constructed my product to both reinforce and challenge conventions through the use of cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene. As part of the pop genre, the conventions include things like lip syncing, costume and rhythmic editing which I have used in my product.

For my main product I discovered the conventions of pop music videos from my research from earlier in the year, doing a textual analysis which can be seen here. Using the music videos from Mcfly, G.R.L and Beyonce, I discovered the important conventions that I will need to include to make my music video successful.



To ensure that my final digipak looked professional and conventions I looked at existing albums as part of my planning and research earlier in the year. I looked at existing front covers, back covers and CD designs which can be seen here.



For my advert, I put a lot of effort into making it look conventional and good. The research that I did during the planning and research was looking at existing products and pointing out the conventions which can be seen here.

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory was a key part in my portfolio this year as I wanted to challenge what she stated. Mulvey is a British theorist who si known for her Male Gaze theory which is how the audience view women who are presented in the media. She states that women are to be seen and not heard and through the use of  camera movements and certain angles, are portrayed as sexual objects.

To ensure that I didn't sexualise the girls, I looked at music videos in the pop genre that do sexualise females. I looked at Can't Remember to Forget You by Shakira ft Rihanna, Partition by Beyonce and Anaconda by Nicki Minaj which sexualise females in through the way they look and the camera movements. These images belows are screenshots from each of the music videos where Laura Mulvey's theory is reinforced through the use of clothing and camera shots and movements. There are minimal clothing on the girls which instantly makes them look like a sexual object. Also the way the camera focuses on he female body parts such as boobs and bum and the way the camera moves around these areas also presents them a sexual objects.

As I have focused on females in my music video and them feeling confident about themselves, I wanted to make sure that they were not seen as sexual objects, challenging Mulvey's theory. To ensure this I allowed the girls to wear what they felt comfortable in but not to expose themselves. They dressed themselves  appropriately and still represented themselves. I also left the camera stationary without changing the setup up of it so that the camera would not focus on certain parts of the girls, and would focus on all of them so that they were not seen in a sexual way.

The Hypodermic Needle

The hypodermic needle theory is a model of communications that suggests that and message is intended to directly received and accepted by the receiver. In my case, the message of my music video is to feel confident about yourself and I want females to feel this. In the media, such as music videos, women feel pressured to conform to an image of someone else which can make people feel worse about themselves. This is why I used four different girls in my video and focused on the lyrics so that the message of feeling like a 'sexy lady' is put across.

Tessa Perkins

I tried to challenge Tessa Perkins Stereotypes theory in my products by not representing women in a sexual way in which females are stereotypically seen in music videos in the pop genre. Perkins theory states that we make judgements upon a group of people, see in my research from earlier in the year here. Looking at music videos that conform to the stereotypes of females, such as being sexualised, in the pop genre, I learnt how to portray the girls in the video, which I described above when talking about Laura Mulvey. I looked at music videos such as Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus  where women are sexualised to emphasise their bodies and to attract attention to the video. 

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

I wanted to see how effective my products would look if they were real and to be released professionally. For my music video I put it on the 4Music live stream on their website which allows people to watch their channel on any smart phone device, laptop or tablet as oppose to only being able to see it on the TV. For the advert, I put it on a bus stop advert place and in a magazine to test how it would look and I think the outcome was good as I think it works really well, I particularly like how the bus stop sign looks. For the album itself, I put it on a billboard in New York and in the iTunes and Top 40 music charts. Again I think that they work well and look good. Overall this has helped me a little more on visualising my products in the real world.

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

All through my advanced portfolio, I have incorporated audience feedback into my work because i think it is important to have more than one view or opinion. This benefited me a lot as I got good, constructive criticism and areas that I could improve on that I maybe would have not seen. To ask for people opinions I used Web 2.0 and social media, using sites like Facebook, Twitter and SurveyMonkey.

To start my audience feedback I asked my brother and sisters to watch my video and see what they liked about it. I used them because my audience is of all ages.

My Music Video:

Person No.1: Layla. Age 8

Person No.2: Jack. Age 11

Person No.3: Yasmeena. Age 9

I think that using my brother and sisters was a good test to see what effect my music video has on the younger audience. I feel like that they enjoyed it, telling me off screen that they really liked it but the girls were a little shy to move around on screen. I asked them questions such as 'What was you favourite thing about it (the video)?' and 'Do you think the lip syncing worked well?' which were easy questions for them to understand.

Person No. 4: Katie Hall, Aged 18

For the older audience I used my friend Katie and asked her to watch my video and see what she liked about it. I explained the concept of the video and her feedback was positive. Her area to improve on would be to use more locations which I understand.

Person No. 5: Tara Burton, Aged 18

I used Tara in my audience feedback because she appeared in my music video and I wanted to see how she would react to the video with her being in it. Throughout her watching the video I noticed she was laughing at herself and the video. She was good to use because she already knew the concept of the video so she already knew the theme of the video.

Overall her feedback was positive and I understand on her comments on where to improve.

Here is a slideshare which includes the information of me asking 5 people some questions about my three products. The first question was 'Do you like my music video?' and the results were all yes, which is positive and I am happy with. The second question was ask the people what the message of my video was and the outcomes of this was positive as every answer was right. The third question was is women were represented in a positive way, this was important to me as I wanted to challenge Laura Mulveys Male Gaze Theory, and the outcomes was all yes.
Where I could improve in my music video was the next question and the answers where more girls in the video and different coloured background. After explaining the background situation they understood and thought he green looked good.
Probally tthe most important question for me was if they felt happy whilst watching the video because my aim was to make people to feel happy. The results were all yes and I am very happy with this.

Overall from my audience feedback I have learnt that my music video is effective to a wide range of people as I have got feedback from my little brother and sisters to my Nanna who all enjoyed it. Looking at the feedback I got to improve my work has helped me in processes such as choosing the better design for my advert (here) by asking on social media sites. I think it is important that I got audience feedback because it is someone else's opinion other than my own which can help me to improve my work and make it look better.

I also asked Facebook for people to complete my survey to see what they thought of my final products and if they looked effective. I also messages three of my friends to do the survey knowing they would give honest feedback and also because two of them are media students therefore they could give me constructive criticism from a media student perspective.

Here are the results from the survey.

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

Throughout the process of researching and production, I have used a wide variety of media technologies. I have used some of these before and some are new to me but without any of these technologies I wouldn't of been able to do my advanced portfolio.

Blogger:
I have used Blogger to display all my work that I have done throughout my two years of A-Level media. As I have used Blogger before, I knew how it works and therefore didn't face any problems using it. I find Blogger useful because you can include a variety of different ways to present your work such as Prezi's and Youtube videos which make the work look more fun and interesting to look at.

Social Media:
Social Media is important in the Music Industry when promoting a new song, album or video and this is the reason why I took to my own Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to ask for peoples opinions and show them my own work.

I also used Facebook Messenger to contact my models that appeared in my music video.
I feel that asking for people opinions on social media websites gets more people to reply because it is kick and easier for them to do as oppose to getting them to complete a survey.

During the production process:
I used a number of media technology equipment whilst filming my music video and coming to edit. During filming I used the equipment in the picture below which are a filming camera, a still camera, a tripod and a SD memory card.The purpose of the filming camera was to film my music video which I found to a good standard, but not the best but this was all that was available to me so I made the most of the quality of the footage. I used the camera to take photographs for my digipak and magazine advert.  found the quality of this camera good and did not affect the outcome of my ancillary texts. The tripod was used to ensure that my camera shots were still. The SD card was used to store all my footage and images so that I could edit them.
I chosen to edit on an iMac using the programme on it 'Final Cut Pro' which I found easy to use and allowed me to edit my whole music video well.

Photoshop
I was familiar using Photoshop as I used it a lot during my first year, and because I also study photography so I was aware of certain tools which helped me achieve my final product. I used Photoshop to firstly edit my images that I had taken which I then went on to editing my digipak and magazine adverts together.

Adjusting the levels:

I used the 'levels' tool to enhance the colours of the original image. I have used this tool before and it helped me change the background colour of the original images from a off white to white. The tool also brightened up her skin tone and hair and made her lips more vibrant.

Achieving the final image:
 For my front cover, I used the tools 'Black&White' and the 'Eraser Tool' to achieve this. I first used the tool that turned my image into black and white. I really liked the image black and white but I thought it needed some colour therefore, as the black and white had a layer on, I was able to rub out the black and white on Jess' lips and the red beneath to come through. I then adjusted the levels once more to enhance the features on her face (eyes, eyebrows, lips and hair.


SlideShare
I used Slideshare to put my Powerpoints onto my log. The good this using Slideshare is that it makes your work look neat and presentable. I have used this website in all stages of my advanced portfolio from collating all my research together to presenting my screen grabs and creating my evaluation questions.


Prezi

I also used Prezi as a platform to present my work during the process of planning+research, production and evaluation. I have used Prezi to present information such as theory's, audience feedback and the history of music videos. I used this website because I have used it before and it makes my work more interesting to look at and read.

Dafont
Dafont was one of the sites that I have used before in my first year for my magazine advert. I find it has a wide range of font styles which suit any scenario. I used this site for my digipak and advert for the text, using the BASIC FONT TITLE for everything.

Survey Monkey

I used Survey Monkey for asking peoples opinions on my work and as part of my research. I was recommended by my peers this site as they found it was a good way to get peoples opinions. I asked questions regarding what people like to see in a music video to what they thought of my first draft. It helped me a lot when wanting to find out peoples opinions.

Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel 

I used Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel through my research+planning, production and evaluation. I have used PowerPoint the most as I have used it for creating presentations that I then put onto Slide share. It has helped me collate my information together in a neater format and looks smart. I have used Excel to create charts to show my data from survey results for my research. I used Word mainly for Essays such as my skills development essay.

Music Video

Green Screen Problems

Here are the results from removing the background and adding a colour to my footage. I have noticed through feedback people said to add colour to my background and this was the result. I felt that it looked tacky and unprofessional therefore I chosen to keep the green.