A2 Media Studies Project

The final draft of the music video I created as part of my A2-Level Media Studies coursework can be seen below. 

Below is my final album advertisement poster. I researched into posters advertising other artists before creating it to ensure that I knew what made a poster successful. Overall, I am happy with the way it turned out as it has clear and obvious links to my digipak, making it instantly familiar to my audience.

Below is my final album digipak design, and overall, I am extremely happy with how it turned out. I think that the images, font and colour scheme of my digipak all reflect the artist's aesthetic and style of music extremely well, making it recognisable to people that this artwork is representing her. Having researched Digipaks from various artists and genres really helped when creating my own Digipak, as I had a good idea of what information to include and how to choose fonts, layouts and colour schemes. Being familiar with the artist's music, iconography and overall image was beneficial when making this Digipak, as it gave me more of an insight into what people (including her fans) expect from her.  

My Final Front Cover Design

My Final Spine Design

My Final Back Cover Design

Evaluation Question Four: How Did You Use Media Technologies In The Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

To answer this question, I have created 3 separate videos, each discussing one of the following: Research, Planning and Construction and Evaluation. I have uploaded them to YouTube and embedded each one below.







To show how Media Technologies were involved in the decision to upload my main product and ancillary texts when I did, I have created a presentation using Slides (below): 

Evaluation Question Three: What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Evaluation Question Two: How Effective Is The Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

Evaluation Question One: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

 

Script:

Bailey and I decided to present our music video on YouTube, as it is the most popular video-sharing platform on the internet. I had used my YouTube channel to upload various pieces of work throughout my A Level Media Studies, so it made the most sense logistically for me to use this site as I am familiar with how it works. YouTube is also the most widely used site for artists of all genres to present their music videos to the world, so by using YouTube myself I have followed the conventions of real media products. We uploaded the video to Bailey's channel as she had the final copy of the video on her laptop, so it was easier this way. 

I presented my digipak and poster on my blogger page, as this is where I had been uploading all of my other A2 Media Studies research and work. In a way, this was me challenging the conventions of real media products as an artist would usually distribute their posters and digipaks through the real world as opposed to being solely online. Presenting my final products through my blogger page also allowed me to clearly display my planning, editing and ideas processes alongside them, showing how I created a finished digipak and poster that I was happy with.  

We chose a song within the Indie Pop genre for our music video. Bailey and I are both familiar with the genre and its characteristics, so we were well aware of the typical conventions of an Indie Pop video, such as the use of clips with a low saturation and a distinctive lack of bright colours. Music videos within this genre mostly use simple jump cuts to change between clips, so as not to distract attention from the video itself. In our music video, we used, developed and challenged the typical conventions of a video within the Indie Pop genre. Like many other videos within the genre, we used jump cuts to transition between clips to create a simplistic editing style, and decreased the saturation of clips to give them a cool tone. However, we decided to challenge the lack of bright colours included in a typical Indie Pop video by including bold projections and kaleidoscope effects in our own. Other Indie Pop artists who have challenged this convention similarly to us are Death Cab For Cutie and The 1975.

Throughout the Indie Pop genre, women tend not to be presented in an overly sexual manner. I have followed the conventions of this genre through both my main product and ancillary texts, as the 'artist' shown in these products is not presented sexually. It could be argued that I challenged the pop aspect of this genre through my work by choosing not to present the artist in this way. 

On my album cover and poster, the artist is central, highlighting that she is the point of focus on the products. I did this as my research showed me that this is a common feature for Indie Pop products to have. The artist is usually easily identifiable on the products, so as to emphasise synergy and iconography within a genre that is not overly popular among the mainstream market. I believe that I have developed this convention of the genre in my ancillary tests by using a photo that does not show the artist's face, while maintaining the same style of imagery throughout my products. Synergy is especially popular within the Indie Pop genre, with artists often developing unique aesthetics, making their brand recognisable. I believe that I have succeeded with this in my ancillary texts by using the same colour schemes, image style and fonts on each product, much like artists including Lorde and Marina and The Diamonds have done with their albums and advertisements recently.

Within our music video, we included lots of close-ups of the artist's face- something that is sometimes used in Indie Pop videos, and, according to Andrew Goodwin's theory, is extremely common within the pop genre. We developed this technical code by deciding to include close ups of the artist's face interspersed amongst other shots, similar to the style of Lorde's Royals music video. In this way, we followed a convention of the pop aspect of the Indie Pop genre, and developed it to make it more unique and true to the spirit of the genre of the song we had chosen. While often in music videos, the artist is filmed from a high or low angle to give the audience a particular impression of them, we decided to film our video on eye-level. This gave the video a more realistic and in-the-moment feel to it, and allowed the audience to feel more connected to the artist, as the camera shots looked as though they were filmed from somebody's point of view. I think that choosing to use this particular camera angle shows how we followed conventions of the Indie Pop genre, as it projects a modest and relatable presentation of the artist- something that is commonplace among this genre. 

Our Music Video: Final Draft

We used an iPhone 6 and a Canon Powershot SX260 to film all of the clips in our music video. We ended up using the iPhone for the majority of clips, as when we tried filming certain sequences on the camera they ended up overexposed and didn't look as effective. The iPhone also had the benefit of a time-lapse recording feature, which we used to film several clips in our video.

For the editing process, we used Final Cut Pro, as this gave us access to many interesting effects and techniques- more than we would have had if we'd used iMovie. Bailey was the most familiar with the software, so she did most of the technical side of the editing while I helped with deciding upon how to change and manipulate certain clips. The main changes we made to clips were:

• Desaturation of footage
• Changing the brightness of footage
• Zooming in/Cropping footage to ensure that the framing looked how we wanted it to look
• Slowing down clips to make footage fit to the beat/look more interesting or effective
• Using filters such as 3D, security camera, static and kaleidoscope

Another thing we believe was important during the editing process was to ensure that clips cut to the beat of the song. This made the video fit with the song more effectively and allowed the footage to flow well. 

Our Music Video: First Draft

Planning My Music Video: Equipment Documentation

We will be using a Canon Powershot SX260 to film our music video, as we used it for the Preliminary Task and it gave us high quality images while being easy to work. This is my own camera, which also makes the recording process easier for us as we are familiar with how it works in different settings and lights. We will also be using an iPhone 6 to film parts of our video, as it allows us to use different visual effects such as Time Lapse. 

Another possibility that the iPhone 6 allows us is the fisheye lens, which we are considering using in our music video.

We will be using iMovie to edit our video, as both me and Bailey have easy access to this software and are confident with using it. We will also be using Final Cut Pro as Bailey is extremely familiar with it after using it to edit our film opening last year. 

We will be using a projector to project images onto the 'artist' (myself) in order to create atmospheric clips using an interesting technique. To the left is an example from Halsey's 'Ghost' music video where projection has been used to create atmosphere. 

Planning My Music Video: Shooting Schedule

21st December, 1pm: 
Travelling into Bath to film Time Lapse and train station clips. 

6th January, 2pm:
Film clips involving powder paint in Calne. 

7th January, 2pm:
Film clips involving the use of projections at school.

*UPDATE* We have already filmed some random visual theme clips as we have had an idea of what we wanted this video to be like for quite a while. We have each recorded various clips over the past few months when we've seen things/had ideas to film things in our day-to-day lives. Examples of these can be found in the YouTube video below.

Planning My Music Video: Representations

Mind Map created by 09bradynic with GoConqr

Planning My Music Video: Who Will Be Involved? (CAST)

Bailey will be filming our music video, as she filmed our Preliminary Task and we were both happy with the end result of that. We have both already filmed some theme clips (see here) over the past couple of months that we might use in our video, so in this way I have also contributed to the filming process.

I will be starring in the video. We decided this as I am happy to be in the video, and this will make organisation much easier for our shoots as we only have to make sure the two of us are free, instead of trying to find a day where more people are available.

We will both contribute to the editing process, as we are both confident with using the software and this way we will have a more interesting and creatively extensive final video. 

We may require assistance when filming scenes with powder paint as it would be difficult to throw the powder, film it and ensure that it looks effective without another person to help us. 

My Album Advertisement Poster Design

Below is my final album advertisement poster. I researched into posters advertising other artists before creating it to ensure that I knew what made a poster successful. Overall, I am happy with the way it turned out as it has clear and obvious links to my digipak, making it instantly familiar to my audience.

My Final Digipak Design

Below is my final album digipak design, and overall, I am extremely happy with how it turned out. I think that the images, font and colour scheme of my digipak all reflect the artist's aesthetic and style of music extremely well, making it recognisable to people that this artwork is representing her. Having researched Digipaks from various artists and genres really helped when creating my own Digipak, as I had a good idea of what information to include and how to choose fonts, layouts and colour schemes. Being familiar with the artist's music, iconography and overall image was beneficial when making this Digipak, as it gave me more of an insight into what people (including her fans) expect from her.  

My Final Front Cover Design

My Final Spine Design

My Final Back Cover Design

My Final Digipak Disc Design

I chose a simple, plain design for the disc of my digipak. I did this as the tray image I had created was quite busy, bright and chaotic, so I wanted my disc to stand out against that. I used this bold, turquoise colour as it matches the colour scheme of my digipak, while still standing out from the tray image. My research into various digipaks allowed me to determine what information should be included on a disc design. So that it is easily identified if separated from the digipak, I have included the name of the artist and album at the top of the disc in a bold, clear font. As the album contains explicit language, I have included the parental advisory logo on the middle right of the disc. At the base of the disc, I copied the record label's logo and legal information from the back cover of my digipak, as I noticed that this was a common feature on discs. I used the same font that I had already used on the front cover, back cover, and inside left panel of my digipak to show continuity and a common design theme throughout.

Creating My Digipak- Inside Left Panel and Tray Image

After creating the front and back covers of my digipak, I made the inside left panel and tray image. I wanted to make sure that the images matched the overall colour scheme of my digipak, so I used the Hue and Saturation method (see previous post) to do this. 

TRAY IMAGE

The image I used for the tray image of my digipak.

To create the tray image of my digipak, I first cropped the image above so that only a small section of the wall was present in the photo, and so that the dimensions were correct for the template. I then used the Hue and Saturation tool to edit the colouring of this photo so that it would match the rest of my digipak so far. I decided that I wanted to give the image a more distorted effect, so I used a 'glitch' method that I learned from watching this YouTube tutorial.

I then used the smudge tool to further increase the appearance of distortion on this image, before finally increasing the brightness and contrast of it.

My final tray image design.

INSIDE LEFT PANEL

The image I used for the inside left panel of my digipak.

To create the inside left panel image of my digipak, I first opened the above image in Photoshop and cropped it to fit the dimensions of the template. I then used the Hue and Saturation tool to give the image the same colour scheme that the rest of my digipak uses. Next, I used the glitch technique on the photo (see tray image method) to give it a more distorted effect. 

Finally, I added text to the image. In the top left corner, the title of the album- 'BADLANDS' is written in Japanese. This is relevant to the artist's aesthetic as she has often expressed her love for Japanese culture and has included this in her merchandise designs. I also added the glitch effect to this text so that it would match the overall image. I then added the quote at the bottom of the image. I used the same font that I had previously used on the front and back covers of the album to emphasise the continuity of the digipak. I added this quote as it is relevant to the album, and gives the digipak a personal touch, allowing audiences to connect with the artist better. I did not add the glitch effect to this piece of text as it would have made it too hard to read.

My final inside left panel design.

Creating My Digipak- Album Covers

ALBUM COVER

Firstly, I created the front cover and back cover of my digipak. I used Photoshop to edit images that I had already taken for my digipak. 

The image I used for the front cover and back cover of my digipak.

To edit all of the images in my digipak, I first used the Hue and Saturation editing tool on Photoshop in order to give them a different colour scheme. I wanted my photos to reflect the artist's visual aesthetic as well as the style of music, so I gave them a blue, turquoise, pink and purple colour scheme. I think that this appearance reflects the electronic elements of Halsey's music particularly well. 

I then cropped the image into a square so that it would accurately reflect the shape of a real CD cover. For the front cover image, I simply added 'BADLANDS' and 'HALSEY' in the font Helvetica Bold in a light blue/turquoise colour. For the back cover image, I used the same photo, however, this time I used the smudge tool to get rid of the figure in the center of the image to ensure that it looked different from the front cover and allowed room for the track listing to be written over the top. I then added the track listing in the font Helvetica Bold Oblique, using the same colour for the text as I did on the front cover. I also added the legal information, a barcode, the record label's logo, and the artist's and label's respective websites. 

The final design for the back cover of my digipak

The final design for the back cover of my digipak

Overall, I am really happy with the front and back cover designs for my digipak as I think that they represent the artist, her style of music and her aesthetic well.

Artist Poster Research

            

Digipak Analysis

Target Audience

Using my audience research survey results and my own knowledge, I have compiled information about the target audience of the music video I will be creating. 

Below/right: Photos of my chosen artist (Halsey) with some of her fans. 

My target audience will be people aged 16-20: teenagers and young adults. This group will mostly consist of females, as the artist I have chosen to make a music video for has a predominantly female fanbase. My target audience will be mostly students, (whether that is university, school or college), as people within my target age group are more likely to be students than to have any other particular occupation.  I also noticed that 'Student' was the most popular occupation in the results of my audience research survey, which backs up my decision to have a target audience consisting mainly of students. 

I searched 'Halsey with fans' on Google, and the majority of photos that I found showed the artist with young, female fans. This supports my decision to aim my music video towards a mostly female audience between the ages of 16 and 20, as the majority of the fans in photos with the artist fit into this demographic. The majority of people who took my audience research survey were females aged 16-20, which means that I have the most firsthand information on the interests and opinions of this demographic, making it easier for me to produce a music video and digipak tailored to them.

I created the set below using Polyvore to demonstrate the style of clothing and the general aesthetic of a typical Indie Pop music fan. As Indie Pop is quite a new and innovative genre with sonic and lyrical influences from past decades, I tried to make the clothing set I made reflect this.

I created this music magazine cover to represent the interests of my target audience. I used Lorde as the cover star as she is currently the most well-known Indie Pop musician around, so would attract a wide audience, including people who were not familiar with the genre. My audience research revealed that most people watch music videos because they are a fan of the artist, which is why I included the mention of the artist I have chosen to create a music video and digipak for on the cover of the magazine. I also included several other Indie Pop artists, to emphasise that my magazine is aimed at people who enjoy this particular genre of music.
On the left side of the image, I have included a cover line of 'BFI Film Festival 2015'. This would appeal to my target audience, as people who are interested in Indie Pop music are likely to also be interested in Indie (independent) films, as they support the idea of not selling out to major corporations. My audience research survey also showed that the main entertainment interest people had was films, results indicating that films were 7.14% more popular than TV shows and 23.81% more popular than music videos. This was another reason that I included mention of something film-related on the cover of the magazine. The cover line underneath the mention of the BFI Film Festival- 'When Youth Takes Over' has been included to represent the age range of my target audience. Underneath this, the feature mentions 'young creators'. I think that this represents my target audience as young fans of a genre as interesting and innovative as Indie Pop are likely to be quite creative and individual themselves, so reading about people who share their interests would be relevant to them.
I chose a simplistic colour scheme, font and layout for this magazine cover as I wanted it to reflect the typical style of an Indie Pop music video. The soft-toned and muted colour scheme of my magazine cover matches that of an Indie Pop video, and the simple font doesn't distract attention from the cover image, which I think is the most important feature of my magazine cover. I used the tagline 'Independent Music. Innovative Ideas. New Perspectives.' underneath the masthead of my magazine to give an overall summary of what it is about. I think that this really sums up the genre of Indie Pop and what it stands for, so as a result, the magazine would appeal to an Indie Pop fan. 

FILMS THAT WOULD INTEREST MY TARGET AUDIENCE: 
My target audience would most likely be interested in independent or 'indie' films such as the examples listed below. As I mentioned previously, people who are interested in Indie Pop music are likely to be interested in this particular style of film as they support what the term 'independent' stands for in the entertainment industry.

Palo Alto (Gia Coppola, 2014)

Spring Breakers (Harmony Korine, 2012)

Stuck In Love (Josh Boone, 2012)

Planning My Music Video: Storyboard (Shots 1-15)