Evaluation question 4

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

 

How have I improved from AS Level?

In reflection, I personally feel I have improved massively since AS Level. I feel that both aspects of  my research and planning have both greatly improved. This year, for my A2 coursework I focused on making my research and planning far more detailed ensuring I blogged every time I had a substantial amount of information to write about wether this be research into our music genre, our target audience or artist inspiration or just simple planning blogs such as filming days or particular milestones in our editing. I ensured to evaluate concisely and use technical terms. 

I also feel that my editing skills have improved from AS Level. I have progressed in certain areas such as learning how to do tasks such as colour correction and cropping a clip so that the framing is smaller. Being able to do these said tasks has allowed for my work look more refined and of a higher, professional standard. 

In conclusion I feel that this year I put a lot more effort into my work. As a group we made sure we had a set, structured plan rather than just going out to film on random days and filming unnecessary footage. I feel my group was successful and our team work enabled us to sail through the coursework smoothly, we all made up for each others weaknesses and this shows through in our final video.

In addition to my personal progress, there has also been an improvement in the equipment used this year. At AS level we only had access to a slightly smaller camera that was of a lower quality. This year however, we got new cameras which were larger and that had high, HD standard quality this meant our work looked more refined in comparison to last years video and I feel that our final video looks very professional. Furthermore, as well as better cameras we also successfully used other features of technology such as  studio lights and projectors which helped to make our work look brighter and more artistic, creating an effective final piece.

This years coursework unit was very different from last years and in my opinion, far more enjoyable. This year we were able to experiment with our creativity and range of ideas. Last year we were almost a little restrained as to what we could film, where we could film and the mise en scene we could include. This year there was a broad range of locations available to us and room to include different ideas as well as incorporating many different outfits. The creative nature of the coursework has allowed my confidence grow in the fact that I could express my ideas and more than likely, they could be incorporated in some way shape or form. As an overview, the music video was a lot more fun to make than the thriller opening from last year. 

My knowledge of techology and media has broadened vastly since AS  and I am extremely pleased with our end product.

Evaluation question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After previously having uploaded our music video rough cut to Facebook, this then enabled us to make improvements for our final version. Posting this version on social media allowed for it to get exposed to a wider audience, some of which outside of our target audience of ages 16-23. Sharing it and receiving feedback allowed for us to see what improvements needed to be made, equally valuing our target audience's opinions and those outside of this bracket- it was interesting to see whether they had similar taste to the target audience which we soon discovered to be true. Our target audience also included males as well as females because we felt that our chosen artist's music (Lana Del Rey) appealed to both genders. We had evidence of her appeal in males as we knew male friends who were big fans of her, she is also an attractive artist and therefore has a large amount of sexual appeal in terms of a male audience. Females may identify with her as her lyrics are about love/heartbreak from a woman's perspective and the fact that she is a solo female artist- therefore it is natural that females will want to watch and listen to her.

People older than 23 liked and commented, saying they found the video 'highly enjoyable' and likewise with our target audience, this shows that it appeals to those outside of this age range too. As aforementioned, the viewer's main criticism tended to be based around the ending. They felt it should be changed as it is not of the same standard as the beginning of the video- we all agreed on this and it solidified what we had already been thinking. Following this feedback, we used some footage from an additional filming day we had organised in the studio and the footage turned out to be far more appropriate.
Below is some evidence that we took our audience's feedback on board:

Ending before

Ending after constructive criticism 

We felt that making these changes was a successful decision as the indoor studio added a different dynamic to the video. This may be due to the fact it was an indoor studio and we had not yet filmed inside and because the lights added an intriguing, striking pop of colour. The fact that it is an indoor location means that our video is now more conventional like other music videos in the industry as we have used a combination of in and outdoor locations- I think it is good to adhere to some typical conventions as it makes our video more traditional in some places which is comforting to an audience, however in other areas it is slightly more unconventional meaning that there is still equilibrium.

In addition to the comments regarding the ending, the audience also mentioned the fact that the red ivy clip of the camera tracking Nova as she lip synced was not as successful as it could be due to the fact her hair had fallen over her face, blocking the audiences view of her lip syncing. To overcome this, we removed the clip and replaced it with one of Nova lip syncing on her bed. It was a good idea to use this clip because a similar one is seen else where which adds to the continuity- repeating certain clips in music videos is also conventional and we wanted to stick to some of these ideas for the same reasons.

After making the above amendments and as a group we felt pleased with the finished product, it was uploaded to YouTube. YouTube is a video sharing platform which can be accessed by absolutely anyone online- it was important to us that this was the case because it meant that a wide range of different people outside of our target audience would be able to watch it.  We value everyone's comments & opinion regardless of whether they are 16-23, it is interesting to see whether our video appeals to people outside of the age bracket. Uploading it to YouTube was also  very useful in order for males to be able to view the music video too. This is because we are more likely to have a female's opinion due to the fact that there are females in our media class, therefore we needed to see the point of view from a male seeing as they are also in our target audience

On the day we posted the video, we received 4 thumbs up. This told us that it has been successful enough for four people to like it and nobody out of the 21 viewers to dislike it. This was a great start for us.

The next thing we did in order to attain more specific feedback was make a survey on Survey Monkey. We wrote this survey in order to address (mainly) our target audience. However, it was open to all as we are also interested in people's feedback outside of our target audience.

This is our survey

We were fairly specific with the type of questions that we featured. We wanted to know exactly how our audience felt about specific factors in our music video and ancillary products, whether it be feedback on our artist's tour poster or the viewer's favourite location used in the music video. We wanted to use both a variety of open and closed questions in order to receive detail as well as statistics.

The questions are below as follows:

The questionnaire saw a handful of responses. The graph shows that 20% of responses were male and the other 80% female. Although there is clearly a difference, it was still important to us that a male had given us feedback as we at least had something to compare the other responses to. As well as this, survey monkey allowed us to review participants specific answers, therefore we were able to view the male's exact responses and compare them to the opposite gender.

One of the most important questions we asked was 'What is your age?'. The reason for this was so that we could see whether respondents were within our outside of our target audience. Results showed that all respondents were within the age bracket of 16-23 years old  which was extremely useful to us as that is who our music video/ancillary products are aimed at, therefore meaning that we have very appropriate answers. Although it would still be useful for us to have feedback from outside this bracket, we made sure that we had directly asked for people's opinions who fell under the 'other' category.

We were also keen to ask whether they think that our video was successful as a whole. The graph shows that 100% of people thought that our music video was successful which not only shows that we effectively produced something correctly aimed at our target audience, but also that our creativity has shone through. As this was a closed question, we thought it would be a good idea to create and open ended question which allowed them to develop their response in detail.

The above answer stood out to me the most. The viewer had clearly noticed the 'home video' vibe we were going for and stated that it is effective. When carrying out our artist research, we noticed how Lana Del Rey often has this old fashioned, retro type of style footage running in areas across many of her music videos. We really liked this rather unique idea and thought that it could inspire some of our own as it has a really nostalgic feel about it, a perfectly fitting emotion for our story line of loss and reminiscence. 

This positive feedback reinforced our initial idea of incorporating some of Del Rey's vintage inspired shots in our own video which have clearly turned out to be very successful.

The respondent also stated that their favourite clip was of the artist lip syncing in front of the screen projection. We all agreed that the projection was a very unique idea and not one we have seen in many existing music videos which is a reason why we felt that we should try it out. Our amount of experimentation, in not just this clip but throughout our entire video, is very much evident. Our use of trial and error lead us to these outcomes (such as projection) and evidently went down very well as our target audience have specifically said that it is their favourite element of the video.

The successful projection

In Question 5, we asked for any improvements that they would make in the video. We made sure we designed the question to be open so that they could put as much detail into it as they liked.

An answer that stood out to us was someone stating that they felt that the artist was seen on her bed a lot. Instead they suggested alternative ideas such as further flashbacks about what she is thinking about. We had never actually thought about this idea which highlights why audience feedback is so refreshing and I think that what is suggest is a good idea. Despite this, we had previously gotten a comment from our teacher once before stating that he thought the bed scene may be a little too long and we immediately challenged this. As a group we all really liked this scene, it may be slightly unconventional in the fact that it goes on for a longer period however we feel like it flows and we wanted to challenge some stereotypical conventions in the current industry. We felt like this scene stood out amongst others and that is not always a bad thing. Also our teacher was out of our target audience so his opinion may not have 100% applied to the type of video we were aiming for although the constructive criticism was still valued.

Another piece of constructive criticism that we received was that they felt that they should see further different shots of the camera tracking the artist as they are walking directly towards the camera. This is as they felt it was very successful and that it should be featured more than once to show continuity. We agree with this statement as we personally really like this shot too and think that adding more would definitely enhance the video. Despite this, we didn't feel the video lacks any continuity currently as we have repeated the same tracking clip more than once in another area- although filming a different tracking shot would definitely compliment the existing one.

We also asked which location was their favourite. These question answers were actually very beneficial to us because each one states a different place- this shows that a whole variety of different areas of our video are liked/appreciated.

Someone stated that their favourite was the beach in Margate. During our filming day, we had noticed that the weather there was not exactly on our side- making it challenging to film.   The fact that they said it is relatable is good because this is something we were all hoping for, we used a lot of point of view shots to make the audience feel as if they were directly involved and this has evidently worked.

Another person stated the gallery was their favourite location and not like anything they had seen before. This is good because our aim was to be unique in comparison to existing music videos- videos that use the same ideas as others tend to blend in to one another and that is certainly not what we want.

The male stated his favourite location was the studio. This is very beneficial as it shows that the audience are now praising the end of the video after we had made changes to the ending based on our previous criticism. It shows that we have taken previous advice well on board and received a good outcome. Also the fact that he is a male and likes the scene is evidence that it appeals to both genders within our target audience.

We asked whether the audience felt the music video was appropriate for our target audience. 100% said yes which reinforces the fact that we have catered well to the age group of 16-23 that we aimed for during the planning process of the video. Also the fact that 100% of the people answering yes are in our target audience themselves creates more validity as out of anyone they would be the ones to know whether it is appropriate.

Moving onto feedback about the ancillary products, we asked for feedback based on the digipak.

Someone wrote that they liked the colours which is something that we also really liked as it brightened up the black and white picture however was still quite subtle. Some constructive criticism that we received said that we should maybe fade the border of the black and white picture so that it blends in a bit more with the entire album. Although I can see where they are coming from, we decided to keep the photograph like this to emphasise the fact that Nova is creating a bold statement and she needed to in order to stand out in this competitive music industry. This is the reason why the picture remains like this.

Someone else had stated the fact that the cover looked 'professional' which is exactly what we were aiming for. They also understood our aims by saying that the geometric shapes supported the album title 'Fragments' which shows that our idea is successful.

When asking about our tour poster we got extremely positive feedback which is great to hear as we were all very pleased with it once it was completed.

Each and every single comment stated that the poster looked professional which is what we were striving for during the making process. It is great to see that other viewers from our target audience thought this about the product too. One of the comments in particular left us some constructive criticism, saying that we could have incorporated some colour into the text to make it stand out further. Although we could see how this would be a good idea, we like the fact that we only chose around two colours to go on the poster (blue and white) as it creates a professional appearance. We feel that adding in even more colour could possibly lose the maturity which is why we have kept it as it is although I can definitely see how adding colour could brighten it up a little.

We asked whether the audience think that the insert for the album is effective. Everyone agreed and gave us positive feedback. Someone also left some constructive criticism for us:

They had said that they would 'maybe change the style of font'. I can see where they are coming from as this font is different to any of the other font we have used before. However, we felt that as it was just a quick personal message from the artist herself that the font could be justified by it being a casual more everyday font type- this also makes it
more relatable between the audience and artist.

As well as using Survey Monkey as a way of attaining feedback we also used Facebook.

Kate sent a link to our final video to one of her friends via Facebook to directly see what she thought about it. She sent a message back stating what areas she liked about both the digipak and music video. One of the comments she made was that the artist was styled really well. We agree with this as Nova was dressed in a way to fit the genre of the music (as the viewer had also noticed). The clothes that the artist wore matched her 'brand' and made her look really stylish which not only made her look great but her fashion also appeal to our target audience as she is of a similar age- making her more likable. 

Lastly, we asked people in person who were outside of our target audience what they thought about our music video. Comments we received included ''the artist looks great and the lip syncing has perfect timing''. This proves that our video appeals to people older than our target audience of 16-23 which is a good thing.

Overall, we feel that it was a really good idea to post our video online to see what our target audience and beyond thought about it. It really helped us to see whether both our video and ancillary products were successful and to see whether they appealed to our target audience.

Evaluation question 2

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

In reflection, I personally feel that the combination of our main product and ancillary texts are very fluent and successful. Whilst creating both the video and our digi-pak we had a clear vision of what we wanted them to look like and what techniques we wanted to use to represent Nova's image. As stated earlier on in the project, Nova is an indie/alternative artist and this is something we focused heavily on and worked around whilst creating our project.

Within our video we focused on a few things in particular to help represent Nova's alternative style and artistic eye. The first thing we took into consideration when creating our video was the mise en scene. Below I have listed 4 main key features of mise en scene and the ways in which I feel we have shown them and applied them to the style that we were going for...

Our settings are something that as a group we are very pleased with and something I feel made a big impact on the overall feel of the video. We feel that our locations are an element of our

video that is really successful and help our video to stand out amongst other music videos. As you will be able to see from my 'Filming Day' blogs, we ventured to a mass variety of interesting, scenic settings that we felt were intriguing and that would highlight the alternative theme we were going for. One of my favourite locations that I feel really represents the alternative scene is the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery in Margate. I feel that this location was particularly effective, the range of contemporary art available to us enabled us to gather some creative, original footage that stood out amongst the rest of the more natural footage we got from locations like Whitstable. In reflection, I feel our variety of different locations not only helped to create an intriguing video that expressed Nova as an indie/alternative artist but also expressed our determination towards our work - we really wanted to push the boat out for our video and were willing to go out of our way to different locations to show this.

In addition to our range of settings, we also thought very carefully about how we wanted to present Nova and her alternative image through the use of costume, hair and make-up. Although we wanted Nova to look edgy, we also wanted her to have a sense of innocence and femininity - she is only a new, upcoming artist and even though her music is primarily alternative/indie, we felt that by having a diverse range of outfits, she will be able attract a mass audience who may not necessarily be fans of her type of music. It was crucial that we promoted her effectively. We often kept Nova's hair and make-up simple and effortless, for we felt that her voice should attract enough attention on its own, there was no need to have bold, over the top looks. We took a lot of inspiration from Lana Del Rey as she is often featured looking fairly simplistic yet always manages to make an impression on her audience.

The lighting and colour of our video is an element of it that we focused very heavily on. It was very important to us that a sense of continuity was apparent throughout our video and so had a set colour scheme of pink and blues. A large majority of the time, these colours could be found in real life settings, for example the blue undertones available to us at the beach from the natural lighting and the pink undertones available to us from the lighting available to us at the art gallery. When these colours were not available in real life, we either digitally imposed or enhanced them during the editing process. We feel having a colour scheme of pink and blue helped to represent our genre as blue holds connotations of sadness whereas pink holds connotations of love and deep emotion - all feelings that are apparent within the alternative/indie genre.

Lastly, we thought very carefully about the positioning of our artist within the frame. Although this element of mine en scene does not directly link with our genre, we felt that it was very effective as it is something different. The audience usually expects to see the artist straight in the middle of the screen, so by having Nova ever so slightly off centre in the majority of our clips, we felt we were mixing our video up a bit again, allowing for it stand out amongst already existing music videos.



To ensure we linked our video and ancillary products successfully we carried through a large portion of the mise en scene elements from our video over to our digi - pak. For example, on our album cover we ensured our two main colours of the colour scheme were evident...

As you can see, pink and blue are both present however for our dig-pak we decided that we wanted to incorporate some more colours as well to give the audience a little bit of variety. Despite the use of other colours in amongst our primary colour scheme, we felt the repeated use of the pinks and blues would be effective as our target audience would be familiar with them and would be able to quickly associate them with Nova. In addition to the repeated use of these colours, we continued with Nova's simplistic make-up and costume. Again, enforcing the idea that Nova's talent is more important than her looks. In addition to the mise en features, we included geometric shapes as a way of subliminally connoting that Nova's music is of the alternative/indie theme. These types of shapes are often associated with people who have an 'indie' style and so by putting them on our album cover, we are making Nova relatable to them.

As a way of linking our album cover and tour poster together, we also included the geometric shapes ever so subtly on the poster with the geometric shapes evident on Millie's dress. Similarly, we linked the black and white image on the album with the grey background apparent on the poster - both of these may not strike the audience initially, but will allow them to link the two together subconciously.

As well as using the visuals as a strong link, we also guaranteed continuity by our use of the exact same text throughout our dig-pak. Not only did we want to use the same text to solidify that strong link, we just thought it looked professional - if we continued to change the text we used throughout the project our audience may get confused and assume the two pieces of work are not linked together.

In conclusion, I feel that we managed to link our ancillary products and the video very effectively, whilst also being able to link them both to our genre and the type of image we were going for with Nova. I am pleased with the work we have produced.

Evaluation 1

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

Our song 'Without You' by Lana Del Rey would be classified under the alternative pop genre. Conventions of this genre usually include narratives that are quite traditional (e.g. heartbreak), however are often presented in a new innovative and inventive ways as a way of standing out and being unique. Alternative music videos are also very artistic - they are very subjective to the audience, they choose how they wish to interpret the narrative of the video.


An example of this would be London Grammar's 'Hey Now' music video. There is no right or wrong answer within this genre- you as a viewer decide what you think the video/song is about. 

Conforming to Conventions

The first way in which our media product conforms to the conventions of real media products is that our video has a narrative. Although it is not hugely explicit, the audience can clearly tell that there is a story line revolving around the artist and her relationship struggles. We chose this type of narrative as we have a target audience of ages 16-23 and wanted to ensure that it would appeal to them.

The type of narrative used was wholly based around emotions as our story was about a heart brake, visually represented by all of the good times the artist had with her partner- also with contrasting shots of her distraught as the lyrics say ''I'm nothing without you''.
Due to this, it shows that our media product uses the conventions of real media products.

Another way that our music video uses the conventions of real media products is the fact that it includes a lot of lip syncing. This is a very typical element of any music video. We made sure the artist is shown lip syncing in a range of different areas spread very evenly throughout the video so that there is still equilibrium and the audience can watch it with ease. In the image above, there is a wide eye-level camera shot of our artist (Nova) lip syncing whilst laying on her bed. I think that this shot is particularly successful as she can be seen as appealing to a male audience (which is good as our target audience is both boys and girls) and overall looks very glamorous which is exactly how we branded Nova. There is, therefore, a very clear correlation between the visuals and the lyrics as in this shot she is singing 'am I glamorous? Tell me, am I glamorous?''

In the above image it shows Lana Del Rey lip syncing to her song 'Video Game's in her music video. This proves that our chosen artist also lip syncs throughout her videos and conforms to the conventions of music videos, much do the majority of artists- thus supporting our decision to do so. 

Saying this, Del Rey does not lip sync throughout the entire music video and nor did our artist. She has a range of 'super 8 style' shots which look like a home video and other establishing shots to help place the entire video into deeper context. This is also a typical convention in music videos that I feel we stuck by.

We also wanted to stick to these conventions in this case. We made the conscious decision of filming a range of establishing shots to place into our video, we really felt that these would help build the atmosphere and set the scene for when our artist is first shown. The above sunset with panning camera work, is one of the first few opening establishing shots and it is deliberately placed there as it can be used to foreshadow what else may be seen further on in the video. We used a variety of sunset references later on (such as the projection on her back) and also used this theme of colours both throughout the video and ancillary products.

The above shot is an example of the opening shot of, again, Lana Del Rey's 'Video Games' music video. It also features an establishing shot of a location which is bright and colourful- coincidentally quite similar to ours which shows just how conventional our camera shot is.

In the is close-up wide shot (pictured right), it shows some fairy lights twinkling. This is the second shot in our video that Kate filmed and has mainly been used for aesthetic purposes. The shot has a strong depth of field. Both we and our target audience, said that this shot was extremely successful which shows that although it was not a shot of the artist, it was still well liked by the viewer- showing the shot's importance and relevance.

Another typical convention we used in our media product was our use of multiple locations and costume changes. Music videos often use a variety of different locations as a way of keeping the audience interested and this is something we felt was necessary for our video. We felt that if we only used one location then the music video may seem repetitive and in turn, not very entertaining. We wanted to use both in and outdoor locations as this is something often seen in real media products. We got brilliant feedback on our range of locations from our target audience which shows that they have worked effectively together in the video.

Using multiple costume changes was also very conventional of us. Through our extensive research, we noticed that in real media products, artists are almost always featured wearing different costumes. By including a large number of outfits, we are emphasising the brand we created for Nova. As well as this, the fact that the artist is in a variety of different outfits portrays the fact that there is a sense of a change in time- this is definitely true in relation to our music video as our narrative is based on the good memories Nova spent with her ex-boyfriend over the summer period.

Another convention we have conformed to is the use of camera movement within our video. We have used a vast amount of tracking shots (such as the wide shot above) and panning in our final product. I feel that this is a very conventional  type of camera movement to use, especially the shot of the artist lip syncing whilst walking towards the camera whilst it tracks her. This is a very recognisable shot and something the audience will be very familiar with seeing, meaning that it will put them at ease whilst they watch.

This is an example of a tracking shot whilst Demi Lavato lip syncs and walks towards the camera. It proves that they are very commonly used almost in every music video- I think they look very successful, especially in ours. This is because they add a lot of movement to a video making it that bit more interesting as opposed to the camera just staying static. Despite this, we still used a range of both panning, tracking and static camera work to ensure that we had some variety in our video- intriguing the audience. 

We used repeated sequence in our music video, which is another typical convention of a video. During audience feedback we received comments saying that they thought the tracking shot of the artist walking and lip syncing towards the camera was the most successful. Also as Nova was lip syncing the chorus, we felt it would be highly appropriate to repeat this shot as chorus' are usually repeated in real media products in order to portray familiarity as they are the same lyrics. I think that deciding to do this was successful because it not only meant that our most effective shot was used more than once, but that the audience could relate back to this particular part of the video- perhaps making it more memorable which is always a priority. 

Finally, another convention we conformed to was our use of slow motion. Which is also very often present in real media products. Slow motion is often used in the media to represent a look of love or lust which is also very relevant to our storyline.  Within our narrative, our artist is remembering all of the happy memories she had with her ex-boyfriend. We decided to slow some of these shots down such as the point of view shot on her holding hands with him as she walks down the beach as we felt that it was a very emotive shot and we wanted to highlight this to the viewers to make them aware of the fact that she misses these memories. I think that using slow motion was successful as it created more of a contrast in comparison to other clips at a regular speed, therefore making some stand out more than others- this may make it more memorable to the viewer which is important if our artist wants to be successful in the music industry. 

Challenging Conventions

A way in which we challenged the typical conventions of music videos was by the fact that we didn't use a male figure in our media product despite our narrative surrounding a relationship breakup. We noticed that in many real products, a male was seen if not at times, constantly throughout music videos if it was about a relationship- which most tend to be.

A real life example of this would be in Taylor Swift's music video 'Ours' which is a narrative based around her missing her boyfriend who is in the army. Throughout, it shows home videos of her and her other half and then jump cuts back to her current life bored in her regular office job dreaming of when he'll come home.  The big difference between her video and ours however is that the point of view shots actually view the male whereas ours don't. In her video, there are either two person shots of the couple together, POV shots of the male filmed by the female (in our video we reversed this the other way so that the male's face is not seen) or one person shots of the male alone - this is a more conventional approach. The reason why we decided to break these conventions was because we wanted our video to have a stronger sense of mystery which made it that little bit more unique. We wanted the audience to question who the males was and why they broke up- I believe this makes the storyline more compelling which is why it was successful that we did so.

In Lana Del Rey's music video 'Ultraviolence' the entire music video is a shot of her (only her face and nothing else) with closeup shots and medium shots in order to restrict anyone else intruding the frame. It shows her in a bridal dress with the lyrics connoting that she is in an abusive relationship and should not be marrying this person. I noticed how the male figure is nowhere to be seen in this video, perhaps to signify her isolation. Del Rey has had a very similar approach to us in terms of the fact that there are many point of view shots of her and her fiance is not visible (although she only used on location therefore I don't think this video is as compelling as it could be). 

Another way in which our media product challenges forms and conventions of real media products is that it doesn't include any props. Stereotypical conventions of a music video with a narrative of love would include flowers, a mobile phone if they are seen arguing etc.

An example of this is in Taylor Swift's 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' music video where a variety of props are used- this video has been shot in completely one take and so they used props amongst other things to distract the viewer whilst they prepared for the next scene, cameras still rolling. Props are predominantly used to tell a story in a clear and concise manner- we wanted to break these conventions and go for an approach which made our storyline vague enough for the audience to interpret it however they wished but still clear enough to an extent to which the viewer has an idea on what has happened (in our instance, heartbreak). 

We focused on using aesthetically pleasing scenery on location to keep the audience more entertained as the thought of not using props at all could sound like our video would be quite dull. I'd say that because we kept to a bold and consistent colour scheme and have evenly used lip syncing throughout, that props were not needed.

Many performance based videos use props such as microphones and musical instruments whilst the artist is lip syncing. This can be seen in Lana Del Rey's performance based video 'Young and Beautiful' where she is performing throughout the whole video and violins/the live orchestra is a huge focus. The reason why we decided to break the conventions of using props associated with performance based music videos is because we felt that it would detract the viewer away from the narrative of our story which was a big feature for us because we wanted our video to be emotive and using props such as instruments would be a distraction.

Another code and convention we have broken is the fact that we haven't used technical facilities such as a green screen. Although we had a green screen available to us, we thought that we would challenge these typical conventions in music videos as sometimes the resulting images they produce do not look realistic and that would be something we would really aim for. 

An example of green screen in real media products would be the London skyline and fire in Taylor Swift's Bad Blood music video. Although I believe that it works for the video itself, I am still able to tell that a green screen has been use- it doesn't look completely natural and as the rest of our video is surrounding shots used in nature, it was vital that we avoided facilities such as this- we wanted the emotion portrayed to be as raw as possible.
We are glad that we decided not to conform to this convention as it wouldn't be right for our music video and our target audience feedback suggests to us that they like the shots/editing techniques we used as it is.

Another convention we chose not to conform to was the fact that we didn't use any diegetic sound. This means that we just stuck to allowing the audience to hear the song track and no other sounds that would be audible on set (such as birds tweeting). It would have been conventional of us to include sounds of the wood burning in our bonfire scene for example (along with the song) however we chose not to as we wanted to capture a greater sense of mystery- (this is heard in many music videos of this genre, especially during the intro before the song has actually begun). Had there been diegetic sound, the viewer would know that (for example) the couple were having a row in the background or that they were laughing and having a good time. By choosing not to allow the audience to hear anything other than the song raises questions and I think that curiosity is always a great thing- it entices more interest and that is exactly what we wanted.

In terms of our ancillary products, I believe we have both challenged and conformed to the forms and conventions of real media products.

Our Digipak is overall rather conventional, here is why:
How we have conformed to typical forms and conventions of real media products: We displayed a tracklist in the very centre of back cover in a chronological list which is how songs are typically laid out on many albums. Saying this, we did not use numbers beside each song track which is a stereotypical convention on a tracklist- this was a successful decisions to make because we felt that numbering them would add too much structure and we were aiming more for creativity.
We also conformed to using a bar code, artist logo, record label logo and copyright information on our digipak. This was also a successful decision to make because it became informative and also made it look of a professional standard which is something we always aimed for- evidence of this was in our audience feedback when we got many of the same 'professional' compliments on our digipak.

Conventions we challenged: Our main album front cover image has been edited to be black and white. Typical conventions of the images used on the alternative pop genre front covers (same genre as ours) are that they are usually colourful to pop out at the audience. As well as this, the images of the artist are normally cut or blended out so that the entire front cover look like one whole image, rather than multiple. We decided that we wanted to break the conventions of having a colourful image on our digipak front cover as a black and white photograph appears very slick and professional, perfectly fitting for our mature artist that wants to be taken seriously. As well as this, we decided not to blend the picture in with the rest of the album front cover as it makes Nova stand out further, allowing her to be the star of the show. I think that we made very wise decisions that turned out to be successful as our target audience said that they loved how it turned out during audience feedback and that is who the product is aimed at.

Tour Poster:

How we have challenged the conventions: We have used a different image on our tour poster in comparison to our music video (it has not been taken from one of our filming days on location for our video). We decided that we wanted to take a new photograph that was completely different due to the fact that the audience would have already seen the other possible images and we felt that they may want to see even more of Nova. For this sole purpose, we arranged a new photo shoot to take more pictures of the artist- this is also a good thing because it means the target audience will be kept excited and entertained about new content. Simply recycling the same pictures may become boring and her fan base may begin to decrease which is why the artist needs to stay active.

How we have conformed to the conventions: We have conformed to the way in which the dates were listed (in a chronological list) however they are still displayed on the same photograph whereas many real media products display the dates on a separate layer of block colour.
Another way in which we have conformed is by using our artist's logo, record label logo and social media links on there- it also advertises release of album as well as tour. It is good that we conformed to these typical conventions because we liked the fact that the poster was able to promote other events as well as the tour itself. Also the social media advertisements meant that her fan base could grow even further as the digital age has increased the intimacy between listeners and the artist.

Digi Pak Inserts

In our digipak inserts we used pictures from both of our filming days (in the gallery, Margate and in the studio) which is a more conventional approach to have. This is as the audience can cast their minds back to what they have witnessed in the video and make a clear link between the two- this adds more consistency to our overall products. Either this or they may not have watched our music video yet, meaning that the album inserts are used as a persuasive tool to make them want to watch it because it looks so visually appealing.
We have used conventional eye popping colours for our chosen genre of music. The lighting colours look as if it has been filmed in a studio (which it has), giving off a professional vibe and is very conventional of a music video.
We used a whole page of the insert with simply just an image of the artist which is also a conventional element to feature in a digipak insert. This is because, during our research, we noticed that most artists have 'posters' of themselves on a whole page, mainly as it looks aesthetically pleasing but also because they want to increase the familiarity between the fans and the artist- this is a good reason why we also chose to do this and it was a successful decision to do so because it loos very visually pleasing and rather professional.
A convention we have challenged within our digipak inserts is the fact that we decided to position our text so that it is arced at an angle to fit against the wall. We thought that this would be a more inventive way to display some font which is usually quite a boring subject matter and place it at an angle rather than the traditional way of how you would normally read any writing. This was a successful decision because the text looked as if it had been naturally merged within the photograph which gave it that professional quality.