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Dear Sir/Madam

For my A2 media coursework, I was asked to create a music video; throughout this blog you will be able to see the amount of work I have done through researching into existing products, planning the music video, the construction of the video and of course evaluating my work once complete.

Please navigate through my blog using the research, planning, construction, final products and evaluation links at the top of this page.

I worked as part of a group alongside Jack Crute and Robyn Painter.

Regards
Aimee Sherry

Question 1 & 2

We answered question 1+2 together and maked a documentry style video, We took Girls Aloud's 10 Years at the top documenrty as inspiration when filming. We have head shots of cherrie whilst shes being interviewed about her video also including interviews with Robyn and Jack who talk about the technical side of the video.

We used different locations whilst filming, using the studio to give it more of a profesional look.

Voxpop

We created a Voxpop for Question 3 and asked a range of students for feedback about our music video  to get constructive criticism and what they thought we done well.

Draft introduction for Question 1&2

For questions one and two, we have decided to create a mock-documentary which would be expected of a major artists new release, for example Girls Aloud's recent '10 Years of Girls Aloud' documentary which aired on ITV One in December 2012.

Here is the draft of our introduction and closing credits, which we will use to encase the actual video content where we answer the questions using 'Cherrie' as a star; the rest of our group will act as producers/managers and give expert opinions on the video.

Question 4

For Question 4 we created a video explaining what technology we used for the editing process and creating the video. We played to the strengths within the group and made a video to make it visual instead of using a Pezi or another alternative to answer the questions. 

Final Drafts for Question 1 & 2

From the questions we wrote notes to help us with the script when answering the question 1 & 2, We wanted to create a video because we wanted to be more adventurous and creative, instead of writing the answers in essay form.  

Question 3

We used Twitter to ask for feedback about our video to create our Voxpop, We chose Twitter to contact our target audience so we could collect a vary of different opinions on our video.

The comments we got were positive and helped us improve the video.

Final Cut

This is our final cut for End Of Time.

Digital Pack Back

Following peer feedback, we have improved the back of our digipak making the font easier to read, and have also added the record label logo. 

Question 3 Final Draft

Draft for question 3, We wrote down which area each team member would talk about in the video similar to a script to help when speaking for the voice over.

Question 1& 2 first Draft

The First draft for Question 1 and 2, this helped us break down the question and we made notes connecting to our video. 

Detailed Q1&2 Drafts

Detailed draft for Question 1 and 2, having lots of draft work helped with the filming as we all knew the basics in what to say in front of the camera. Having a more detailed draft made sure that when we were speaking that our  answers were to the point and correct. 

List of videos to Download

We made a list of music videos that inspired our video to include in our documentary for Question 1 and 2. We referenced allot to Avril Lavine and her video for Girlfriend and how she was the fierce female and was going after the boy she wanted, which relates to the lyrics in End Of Time.

Vox Pop Questions

These are the questions we used when asking our audience about our video, we wanted constructive answers and we thought it would be helpful to write questions down so our Voxpop flowed and made sense. Everyone answered the same questions and give their different opinion that helped us when making little changes to our Music Video and Digital pack. 

Peer Feedback results

These are the results we received from our Media Studies class, This feedback was useful because it was constructive criticism and ways to improve which we used to make our over all product stronger. 

From the comments above the audience said that the lip-syncing was out of sync so the group went back to editing the video and sorted it out which wasn't a problem and easy to fix. We got good feedback about our font from our teacher but the audience thought it was hard to read, As a group we really liked our font and thought it was big, bold and unique and decided we didn't want to change it. 

Digital Pack Inspirations

 

We took inspiration from Olly Murs - Right Place Right Time and Rihannas album Unapologetic for our Digital Pack. We liked how the font was repeated behind Olly as it wasn't to distracting from the star but would stand out on the shelf by having the colour change for the name and album title. For our Digital pack we used the same idea by having the words End of Time repeated behind Cherrie. 

Olly also uses pastel colours for his album which we used for ours so cherries black dress stood out against the background. 

With Rihannas album we used the composition of the shot as inspiration as we have a Medium Close up of Cherrie centered in the middle of the album so the audience fully focus on the star. For our digital pack we used a bright lolly on her lips which stands out like Rihannas red lipstick.

Interview Inspiration

For Question 1&2 we decided as a group that we were going to do a documentary style video as it would play to the strength of the group. After watching Girls Aloud 10 Years at the Top documentary we thought it would be a great idea to do the same, Having Cherrie talking to the camera in a interview style talking about the music video. Girls Aloud are a successful pop band which is the same genre we chose for our music video so we thought Cherrie could relate to the girls whilst sticking to the conventions of the genre.

As the song we chose for our music video End of Time is a Beyonce track we thought it would be a good idea to research into Beyonce and how she presents herself in interviews. We took inspiration from the Piers Morgan interview and how whilst she is talking they show images and clips of her performing which we used for our documentary  She relates back to her child hood and how her message is for women to be strong which we used within our video and digital pack.

Questions 1 2 3& 4

This document hold the answers to all 4 questions which we created to help us develop our answers. Creating this document was really helpful to have making sure everyone knew what had to be said, we soon developed a more detailed version to help with our documentary and Voxpop.  

Evaluation Questions

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

-       Discuss how your music video follows conventions. You could give examples from real media texts and discuss how these then influenced yours.

-       Discuss how you developed conventions. Were the conventions you used then developed further or adapted?   

-       Discuss how you challenged typical conventions of music videos within your chosen genre. Did you attempt to include other elements to make your product stand out from the rest?

-       Consider music video theory to support your judgements about your work.

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

-       Consider the brand identity of your products.

-       Deconstruct your ancillary texts and discuss how you used conventions.

-       Discuss how your ancillary texts reflect the themes/narrative of your video.      

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

-       Gather audience feedback from various sources – eg. social networking, focus groups.

-       Discuss the feedback you have received – what worked well? Were there any areas which you need to focus on in the future?

-       You could also link in some audience theory. Consider Stuart Hall (encoding/decoding).   

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

Consider all of the technologies you have used for all aspects of your production.

-       Detail the exact features of the software you used and give an example as to where you used these in your products.

Final Digital Pack

This is our completed Digital Pack, taking inspiration from Olly Murs and Rihannas album with the overlaying writing in the background and pastel colours. Using Cherrie on every fold lets the audience know that the album is all about her and she is the main focus. We chose to have a sweetie theme and developed the images so we had Cherrie being sweet and innocent and on the opposite side her being fierce and powerful to show the different personalities within Cherrie and the video to End Of Time.

Editing the disk

In our music video we used the neon stripy background and developed it into our Digital pack but changing the colours to pastel pinks and purple. We wanted to continue using the same font for the Album as well as the disk to make it flow nicely.