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Stuart Halls Reception Theory

Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasises the reader's reception of a literary text. It is more generally called audience reception in the analysis of communications models.

#lucysimpson

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Task: Select 10 stills/ images from your Music Video and the 2 ancillary tasks. Annotate each one of them in Photoshop or PowerPoint to indicate which conventions you have used at which point.

Help: The question is asking you to compare the genre conventions you used in your 3 tasks to those used in real music videos/ digipaks and magazine adverts. Each of the slides you select should illustrate your use of a particular convention e.g. your female pop video might include a close-up direct address to camera or your digipak might include a particular motif that connects it to the video and the magazine advert.

Within our music video we have decided to focus on female dominance in a pure and classical way rather sexualising the female, through this we have created a star persona, our star persona is a strong, eye catching female. Throughout the music video there is a constant focus on her with the only other representation being of London scenery. This comes across very strongly within the music video as it portrays many different views upon the successful female. She is the only person featured within the video and there is a constant focus on her movement and expression with movements and expressions that often contradict one another. Throughout the video she expresses different aspects of her ‘Persona’ such as; shyness, happiness, confidence, self-actualization and beauty. We felt that these aspects were things that were either apparent in most women or aspects that should be a part of a woman such as confidence and self-actualisation. This challenged the norm as the actress ‘Becca; portrayed nudity in a completely different way to the norm; only her naked shoulders were showing, giving the impression of purity and respect. The way in which women are generally portrayed in music videos is in a sexualised manner, which as a whole depicts an extremely medieval view upon women. We used a lot of close ups and facial expressions throughout our music video and focused on other aspects of her beauty other than nudity and sexualized movement, to portray female dominance and sexuality in a more classical way.

We achieved this atmosphere by using different lighting and back drops, paired with movement and expression performed by Becca. She portrayed attitude and confidence in the scenes where she is shown with naked skin, focusing on her facial expression. As well as this she is shown to be beaming with happiness whilst looking over her shoulder almost as if there were to be an admirer watching her. She uses her sexuality and femininity to entice the viewer rather than using her sexual organs or sexual body movements to excite the audience sexually. We chose to portray Becca in this particular way as we found that many women in the spot light don’t tend to leave anything to the imagination and create an unrealistic picture of women as a whole.

Throughout our music video, we included a wide variety of shots that represent many different features, we has originally wanted to include shots of these nature in our preliminary tasks and planning process.

This is the first shot within the music video, created to spell out ‘Fergie’ The images are designed to spell ‘FERGIE’. Many arists have used different silhouetting shots alongside headshots within their music videos. For example our inspiration came to be from Beyoncé’s music video ‘Countdown’. The focus is strictly on her face and shoulders, giving the ability to focus on her facial expressions.

As a whole Fergie has been seen to portray many different aspects of her personality and we felt that we would like to bring out the softer more feminine side, just as she had portrayed herself in ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’

Even with showing her softer side Fergie is known to be edgy, feminine and unique. Therefore we attempted to show these aspects through Becca within the music video.

Although the shots used within out music videos were so simple, I feel that they were completely effective and portrayed elegance and sexuality whilst staying sophisticated. The variety of silhouette footage used within the video was much easy to be made to look professional due to the simplicity. Whereas is we had complicated the music video it may become scruffy and would end up looking very amateur.

Within our promotion posters and Digipak we have included a silhouetted image of Becca during filming, we also took ‘artist shots’ throughout the filming to later use within advertisement and promotion for the video.

Although this is not a part of a music video it is a silhouetted image of one of the biggest names in the music industry within the last century. This picture was taken during Beyoncé’s pregnancy showing the female body in all its glory, pregnancy is extremely beautiful and the nudity used in this was to present the power and capability of a woman, which is something that we tried to portray within our music video.

We have looked upon these imaged and further developed them by adding in scenery which almost gives an insight into the characters background. Something that is not used very music other than in rap videos. Due to the difference in genre I feel that the use of background has had a completely different effect on the audience.

The scenery in the background is an innovative and imaginative way of bringing a form of art into the music Video, as the footage used was very similar to that taken by an up and coming British artist who captures cities in all their glory. The obvious relation to the background footage and the song is that it is of London and Fergie sings of London Bridge burning down.

The screenshot above is from our final cut music video which has similar conventions to Lana Del Rey’s music video for her song ‘Ride’. Shown below is a still from this video and includes a very similar use of focus on the female character. However instead of using the city footage as an image used over her face, she is shown as the focus with the background city lights faded and unfocused.

Although it is simple it is a very striking image and also includes the naked shoulder without portraying her as a sexual object which is very similar to the image we portrayed within our music video.

Despite the difficulties we had during filming I feel that we achieved the overall image of a strong and unique female whilst keeping the video professional and clean cut.

The focus of our shots are the characters costume, make-up, hair and afacial expression in order to express the emotions she is feeling and the over all style of the character. If we had dressed Becca in a dress for example, the audience would have a very different idea of what her character is like as a whole.

This screen shot in particular focuses on the simple but very flawless make up used for the video. Imagine if the lipstick she is wearing was bright red and her eyes were smoky. The image in your mind would change from simple is beautiful to someone who knows they beauty and flaunts it using very intimidating colours such as black and red. In order to allow the bauty of the simplicity to be scene we had to make sure that the background colours used were bright enough to enhance it but not to strong that it overwhelms thee image. Therefore creating a sharp and eye catching image overall.

The colour used is something that you would definitely see in pop videos such as Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night’ it is a playful colour which fits well with the light and catchy sound of pop music creating a solid genre for the song. We did not feel that contradicting the genre by using dark colours and backgrounds within editing would be effective for the actress or the song. By creating a video that included aspects of mise-en-sence that are typical within the pop genre we were also relating back to the original artist Fergie.

Other inspirations for our music video was Kanye West’s ‘All of the lights’, thorught the lyrics are shown on screen in bright flashing lights. We also chose to show our lyrics on screen but in a more simplistic way, contrasting the colour to the background but only using one font and colour.

This particular convention of the music video allows the audience to interact and eb a part of the video, therefore creating an excitement around the song.

London Background was good as it fit in well with the song lyrics. The words flashing up during the chorus worked well and they were in time. The quick flash cuts created a sense of attack which again fitted well to the song and its lyrics. The silhouettes at the beginning with the bright colours was a good contrast and that theme was carried throughout which showed continuity. The costumes were also said to be very good and helped withbthe overall mise en scene and feel of the music video.

#DaisyBiamonti

Final Evaluation - Megan Desborough

Task: Select 10 stills/ images from your Music Video and the 2 ancillary tasks. Annotate each one of them in Photoshop or Powerpoint to indicate which conventions you have used at which point. Help: The question is asking you to compare the genre conventions you used in your 3 tasks to those used in real music videos/ digipaks and magazine adverts. Each of the slides you select should illustrate your use of a particular convention e.g. Your female pop video might include a close-up direct address to camera or your digipak might include a particular motif that connects it to the video and the magazine advert.

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Our music video used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products through the use of various techniques such as, silhouetted images, lip-syncing and out-take clips.

ADVERTISEMENT ANALYSIS

Our magazine advertisement uses forms and conventions of real media products, as We tried to make our advertisement similar to the digipak by adding either the same image or the same editing. This created continuity over the two pieces. We wanted to challenge some conventions of Fergie's star persona and her pop genre image, as we felt that we didn't want to follow convention in that sense. I think the overall feel of the advertisement is quite modern and stylish.

DIGIPAK ANALYSIS

Our digipak has the same or similar images as well as editing techniques and colour to what was incorporated on the advertisement; again to keep continuity throughout the ancillary products. The thoughts behind the black and white colour code of the ancillary products was to create a heaven and hell image which correlates with Fergie's star persona. I think this works quite well and looks aesthetically pleasing.

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MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS

Here, like a few shots in the whole music video have projected images onto the character. This was designed to allow us to have various settings without physically travelling to London. This saved time and creates a modern vibe and also links to the lyrics 'London Bridge'...

We took inspiration from this music video (Ariana Grande ft Mac Miller - The Way) as we thought it looked great! The overall look we got from doing this was a success. Not many people have done a front projection music video and I think it develops forms and conventions of real media products as it is a different take on what has originally been done.

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The silhouettes with strong, bright colours adds to the genre of pop music. Artists such as Katy Perry and Kanye West use the concept of bright colours too...

However, we have used this convention in a different way, putting our own twist on it. It therefore develops this concept due to the silhouetted images.

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Here, there was singing in the background but we decided not to include lip-syncing to add variety to our music video and not follow pop convention despite many artists now using fillers like this in their videos. We therefore decided to include outtakes of our artist dancing or laughing to show informality and to give an assortment of footage. It consequently uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products.

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The costume and overall look of our character or our take on Fergie used the convention of a celebrity or star performer. They looked sophisticated in terms of having a polished look. The clothes worn encompassed the star persona we were going for. She had a wealthy look; combined with the bright make up and perfect hair enhanced our performance dramatically. The mid shot also allows us to provide the audience with setting, costume and narrative of the music video.

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Both of these images add to Ariel Levy's raunch culture theory as they create a sense of sexiness and lust. This links to Fergies already sexualised star persona. We added this footage as a way of including voyeurism; receiving attention from males due to the sex symbol it creates. I think adding this footage also allowed us to give a variety and comprise the bright bold features that have been evident throughout; adding to the continuity. This uses forms and conventions of real music videos as many artists are now using voyeurism as way of attracting attention.

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This shot, with inspiration of Kanye West's - All of the Lights.

We decided to take inspiration from this video as we felt it gave a modern feel which is what we aimed to do from the beginning. We thought that the flashing lights and use of words and different fonts worked extremely well and would fit with our music video and star persona. I think this worked well as we got positive feedback from this.

Overall, I think our music video challenged, used and developed forms and conventions of already existing techniques used in music videos. I think our products all link well together through the use of images and techniques and maintain a sense of continuity throughout. They use modern, edgy and stylish elements all combining to make 3 great products.

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Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary tasks?

Task: Create a prezi which makes clear links between your 3 products

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Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Task: Create a director’s commentary which includes clips from the music video and ancillary tasks, as well as vox-pop presentations of audience feedback.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYqHDJ79k8&feature=youtu.be

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Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I created a PowerPoint presentation and uploaded it to Slideshare in order to view it.

#megandesborough

Evaluation tasks - LUCY SIMPSON

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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Throughout our music video we have created a specific star persona, which in this case, is a very dominant, outrageous female. We wanted our music video to strike its target audience in an out-going manor. As a whole we wanted to make our video as fun as possible, and we hope that is the result that we have perceived. We decided that colour and saturation was an important role within the video itself as we wanted to hit the 60’s theme that we originally wanted from the beginning.

The specific genre of our music video is typically seen as your general pop iconic video, however, we wanted to include a very rebellious character that played the role of Fergie, but in a more ‘classy’ manor. The character within our music video is seen as a very fashionable, unique female with a strong and bold attitude. We wanted our audience to feel the attitude that the female was presenting within the video, and to do this, we used many different camera angles and positions, such as, close ups (showing neck and above), extreme close ups (facial features) and mid-shots, showing part of the characters costume.

Not only did we present our character as a rebellious young female through our video, we also carried it throughout our advertisement and also our digipak. We hoped to create conventions of which related to real musically produced videos, and in order to do this we used various different techniques to present our main character in many ways that we aimed for. We wanted our target audience to see our character as a very dominant, classy, but edgy female, and in doing so, we made sure that we chose wisely on how we were going to portray this.

The overall star persona that we aimed for our character to present, was a mixture of the following:

Edgy.

Female dominant.

Outrageous.

Raunchy but CLASSY.

Presenting these characteristics had to been done specifically through using aspects of mise-en-scene, such as costume and make up, camera shots/angles such as close-ups that overall identify the characters emotion and attitudes and also editing, such as contrasting certain clips and creating a bolder and brighter saturation.

Throughout all three tasks, (music video, advertisement and digipak) we used, developed and challenged many forms and conventions used within real-life music videos. We wanted our music video to appeal to all ages, therefore we made sure that the video, digipak and advertisement were all relevant, and suitable to fit people of different ages.

I am now going to analyse each of the three products that we have created. (Advertisement, digipak and also our final music video).

Here is a photograph of our final advertisement poster:

The advertisement was a very important procedure in which we had to undergo. Advertisement is very important for those who work within the music and film industry, as it overall, gets the product you are trying to advertise noticed within the public eye.

Knowing this, we aimed for our advertisement to be very eye-catching in order to draw viewers in. We looked upon this task as if it was going to be realistically advertised to the public, therefore we wanted to make it as interesting and unique as we possibly could.

I think that our advertisement is very unique in terms of the editing, such as the cut image. The image that we have used is very fascinating as you cannot necessarily see the full image, this overall creates a very mysterious feel towards our star character within our music video. I think that this also fits in well with Fergie’s star persona, as she has varied her identity throughout her career. At times Fergie is seen in a more innocent manor due to her costume and make-up, for example, within her video for ”Big Girls Don’t Cry”, and at other times she is seen as a dominant, hard working female (for example; within her video for ”Glamorous”)

I think that our advertisement overall is very realistic and conveys certain conventions used within ‘real-life’ advertisement in everyday magazines, TV adverts and billboards. Including logo’s such as the one we have used (Virgin) gives a more realistic feel towards the advertisement as a whole, as its identifying certain brands and company’s as well as advertising them.

I think that we have challenged conventions used within real-life advertisement, as we have created something that is very unique and cannot necessarily link to any other advertisement in real-life. However, I do think that we have been inspired by the research that we made earlier on in the course, which overall suggests that we have developed upon ideas that have been produced through real-life advertisement

DIGIPAK

Here is a photograph of our final digipak:

Both the advertisement and digipak follow the same colour scheme, black, white and grey. I think that this was particularly a good idea as it differs to our final music video. We decided that we didn’t want all three aspects of our music video production tasks to all be the same, therefore we decided to abandon colour within the two ancillary tasks, considering, our music video explored very bright and spontaneous colours.

The digipak overall, uses similar conventions to our advertisement, due to its ‘slits’ and ‘cuts’ (the black and white lines), colour and also the images used. I think that the digipak relates to our stimulus; heaven and hell, particularly well, as for the colour and patterns used. As a group, we liked the idea of using a ‘heaven and hell’ theme throughout this project as it fits Fergie’s personality perfectly.

MUSIC VIDEO

Throughout our music video, we have included various shots that present many different features that we wanted to include from the very start, when we went through during the music video planning process.

Screenshot:

In this example, I have screen shot the first 6 silhouette images that are introduced at the beginning of the video. The images are designed to spell ‘FERGIE’. Despite how spontaneous the silhouette idea was, it remains as one of my favourite shots within the music video itself. I think that using silhouette images works in contrast with Fergie’s personality, as she is seen in many different ways, such as…

Sweet

Glamorous

Mysterious

Edgy

I think that the silhouette images/footage that we used was a fun and interesting camera shot to add as it acts upon our music video in a fairly professional manor. I also think that we made it our own, as for creating ‘FERGIE’ with our hands.

In particular, I think that these images link in very well with our digipak. Our digipak included an image of Becca and acts as a shadow image. Along side filming, we made sure that we took photographs of everything that we were doing. The images shown us making of our music video, while it was in it’s working process and also photos that we could use within our digipak and advertisement.

I think that with this shot in particular develops the conventions used within real-life music videos, such as, Kanye’ west’s video for ‘bound 2’. Here is an image from the music video…

I personally think that both our own and Kanye’s video are very similar in terms of the silhouette images used, despite the difference in background and props used. I think that we have challenged the idea of including silhouette images after viewing Kanye’s ‘bound 2’ video, however, I do also think that we have developed upon this as we have made it our own despite conforming conventions within many other music videos.

Screenshot

I really liked the idea of the background footage, I think that it is really imaginative and interesting. I also think that the footage relates particularly well with our theme, and also the lyrics to the song, as the footage is of London City and it’s attractions.

The characters attitude within this particular shot is very ‘sassy’ and ‘dominant’ in terms of her position and costume. This works really well within our music video idea’s and plans, as we overall wanted to create a very female orientated character that carried dominance and individuality.

I think that within this shot, it specifically identifies, not only our characters costume and positioning, but also the setting design and structure. The background footage is very noticeable (London Eye) and obvious, in terms of it’s location.

Within this shot overall, I think that we have challenged the conventions used within other real-life music videos, such as; Ariana Grande’ music video for ‘The Way’, in terms of creating a protective background. However, we have made it our own by including footage that doesn’t make an appearance in any other music videos. I’m glad that we included shots like this as I think they are presented in a very professional way and follow conventions used within music videos to this day. I also think that the conventions used make our music video more appealing to its audience.

Screenshot:

This screenshot from our final music video shares and conveys many conventions used within Ariana Grande’s video for ‘The Way’ ft. Mac Miller. For example:

As you can see, the shots that we included within our own music video work in very similar ways to Ariana’s video. We decided to develop our idea’s upon this convention in particular, and as a whole, I think we achieved what we planned from the beginning, in terms of creating a professional and unique music video, despite minor set backs and other possible things that we could have perhaps improved on.

We all, as a group really liked the idea of projecting video footage onto our main character within our music video. I think that it explores creativity and is overall very interesting. I personally haven’t seen many people use this effect, which is why we decided to use it. I think that as a whole, it makes the video a lot more interesting than if we were to use a plain background by itself. From the beginning, we wanted to create an artistic effect within the making and editing of our music video, and I think that this works in contrast with our ideas.

We wanted to include various shots within our music video, particularly, mid-shots; to identify the characters costume and positioning, and also close-ups; to present the characters emotion and facial expressions. For example, one close-up that we created…

Screenshot:

In this screenshot, you can see that the shot identifies the characters features in general. The image is very sharp and detailed which I think is difficult to do. When creating this shot, we had to make sure that the background image was a bright, white screen. This helped create a more detailed and focused image, as in particular, it brought out features that you may not have noticed otherwise. This is due to the character being the only and most eye-catching thing on the screen.

I think that this shot in particular conveys the pop genre convention, due to using aspects within mise-en-scene and editing. I think that the make-up that the character is wearing is very gentle but vibrant, in terms of the eye catching red lipstick. I think that as a whole this relates well to some people within the ‘pop’ music genre, as they are genuinely seen in a very young and energetic way. I also think that the editing of this shot links in particularly well with the ‘pop’ genre as for the saturated bright and bold colours used.

We actually created this shot after being inspired by Terry Richardson. Terry Richardson is known for his white background and detailed, contrasted photography. For example…

I really love the way Terry Richardson captures facial features in a really realistic manor. It’s as if you are looking at the character directly, in person rather than at a photograph.

As a whole we have used conventions that were inspired by Terry Richardson photographs and directing within few music videos. We have been inspired by his work and I think we have developed upon his ideas in a very professional way. I also think that the shots clearly identify the conventions that Terry Richardson uses within his work particularly well, due to the sharpness, lighting and editing of the shots that we have created.

Screenshot:

Again, we decided to use the Terry Richardson effect, except this time, we decided to include text. This shot includes lyrics within the chorus of the song. In the video, the lyric shown above, flashes frequently. I really like this idea as a whole as its fits in really well within the whole idea of our music video, due to the various cuts and flashes that we have included throughout.

Previously we spoke about including text within our music video (blog posts//inspiration: Kanye West), and I am very glad that we did as it gives the audience something other than the character to look at, and also focuses specifically on the lyrics to the song for a certain amount of time.

As I said, we were inspired by one of Kanye West’s video’s, ‘All Of The Lights’. Throughout the video just mentioned, various cuts, flashing lights and text (lyrics) appear within the majority of the video, for example:

I really like the conventions used as the majority of the video is extremely eye catching. This inspired to the same for our music video. We wanted our video to draw the viewers in, and in doing so, developed upon idea’s used within real-life music videos.

Screenshot:

This shot was designed to structure the beginning of our music video. Despite how simple the shot is, I really like it and I think gives the video a simple, but good start. We actually wrote this text on a school white board and edited it in Premier, and this is the result we got. In the video this image shakes slightly which I really love as it gives it a bit of life, rather than leaving it to sit flat to jump to the next clip. This type of clip is seen in various real-life music video’s and simply indicates what the song is called and sometimes who it is by, for example:

Chris Brown ‘Wall To Wall’ music video

Even though this is a really basic and classic idea to include within our video, I think it works particularly well as we created the text/image primarily by ourselves. I also think that it begins the video with a smooth start rather than just jumping straight into the following bright, energetic footage.

I do also think that we have used conventions that were used within Chris Brown’s ‘Wall To Wall’ video, however I think that we have developed upon his ideas as we made it primarily our own, (we created our own text and edited in our own way).

Screenshot:

Throughout our music video we have included many shots that present our character in a very happy and energetic way. From the beginning we wanted to make sure that most of all, the video is and looks, FUN, and in doing so we decided to involve clips that were in-fact part of the bloopers!

In this shot we haven’t used, developed or challenged conventions used in real-life music video’s, we have simply added a genuine shot that wasn't necessarily planned to be included within the music video itself. I’m glad that we did include shots like this as we didn't aim for our video to be serious and scripted at all times.

Screenshot:

In this shot you can see that we have again, used a silhouette image. As a group I think that the silhouette image was a favorite. I think that overall it creates mystery towards the character and the setting. Conventions used within this shot, I think are very professional and well filmed. I think that as a whole, mysterious behavior played a huge role within our music video.

As a whole I think that we have overall challenged and developed upon many real-life music videos. We have all been inspired by many different artists and in result of that, we have created something that we have all put thought into. We are overall proud of what we have achieved, due to overcoming the many mishaps that we have been through, throughout this coursework project.

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Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Task: Create a Prezi which makes clear links between your 3 products. Help: Consider to what extent you have created an effective promotional package for your artist. How have you used mise en scene, motifs, themes, composition etc to present a particular image of your artist? What do you think the expectations of your target audience are for each of your products and the package as a whole? Do you think you have met these expectations?

The following link leads you to the Prezi that I created in order to answer this question. I have overall analysed the links between all three products that myself, and other members of our group have created:

http://prezi.com/xxlaebte8gtk/how-effective-is-the-combination-of-your-main-product-and-an/

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Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Task: Create a director’s commentary which includes clips from the music video and ancillary tasks, as well as vox-pop presentations of audience feedback. Help: Consider all the forms of audience feedback you have received as well as all methods and contexts for gathering it. Start by making a list of all of the types of feedback you have received, the context in which you received it, methodology and whether you found it useful/ whether you acted on it: eg. Rough Cut Feedback/ other group feedback on blog/ qualitative/ we added more filters to the video to add genre authenticity.

As a group we have created a video of which answers questions about our final music video and ancillary tasks. The questions were previously planned and produced on the blog, and here is the video that explains the answers that we got from students within Long Road College.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYqHDJ79k8&feature=youtu.be

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Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Task: Create a video presentation which discusses the technologies you used at each stage of the project. This video needs to be different from the Director’s commentary in terms of its presentation and content ie. Presented as a ‘How to use…’/ Teaching (in character?) style of video that could then be used as a future teaching aid. Help: Go through each stage of your project and make notes on which new technologies you used, for what purpose and how useful each technology was in terms of achieving your goals. Were there particular types of technology that you found particularly useful? Were all of the technologies you used digital? How did the technologies work in combination with each other?

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Within this task I am going to analyse the new technologies used in my media project, I will also explain the purpose for each technology that was used, in terms of the media package, (Premier and Photoshop).

When putting together our music video, I used a program called Adobe Premiere. Adobe Premiere is an editing software of which we used to edit our music video. Premiere software allowed us to do many things such as, putting the video together and structuring it's layout (adding the sound track and choosing clips that are going to be placed within the video), overall adaptations to our video, (cuts and snippets) and general editing, (colour correction, speed, transitions etc).

To begin with I had to export all of the video footage that we created, and also the soundtrack, into the folder within Premiere. Once everything was fully exported we were able to begin putting the music video together. The first thing that I added onto the timeline was the soundtrack. Once the sound track was added I was able to work on adding footage to the correct placing, making sure that the lip syncing was absolutely spot on in terms of timing. In doing so, I had to cut down the chosen footage to then and add it to the correct place within the timeline. Here is an example screenshot:

In this screenshot you can see that I have chosen a certain section from this specific piece of footage that we previously created. The section that I wanted to add to the timeline, is highlighted in blue. This was done by using the input and output buttons, (circled in red). I personally think that this was quite difficult to do, especially when it came to placing it in the correct place within the timeline, as you had to make sure that it was perfectly matched to the song lyrics. Making sure that the lip-syncing was perfect was crucial for us as we didn't want our music video to look out of place and unprofessional. Despite some mishaps, I think that we done quite well when it came to syncing the footage and the soundtrack together. However, we did have a lot of footage that was used as fillers, therefore their wasn't must lip-syncing that we had to do.

Adobe Premiere also allowed us to create cuts within the footage. This was very helpful for our group in particular as we aimed to include flashing images. Here is an example of the cuts that we used and created...

As you can see, a lot of our footage is very 'choppy' and separated. The cuts were simple and easy to create. They were done by using a tool on the left hand side of the Premiere timeline, as shown here (circled in red)...

Despite how simple and easy the cuts were, they have made a huge impact within our music video in general. Without the cuts that we have included, our music video wouldn't have been very interesting and wouldn't have followed our planning ideas. As a whole our music video benefited from using this tool as without it our video would simply be impossible to put together. The reason for this is simply because a lot of our footage was far too long and involved unnecessary parts that we didn't want to include within the music video itself.

We edited a lot of our footage, such as, changing the speed and duration, saturation, and we also added transitions. This was all done to create a professional and more appealing music video that related to real-life music videos. Without Adobe Premiere, we wouldn't have been able to do so.

Another easy thing that we changed within the footage, was the speed. When I changed the speed of certain clips, all I had to do was right click on the clip that was needed to be changed, then click on ''speed/duration'', for example...

Once I clicked this, this box then appeared...

As you can see, this box allowed us to speed up/slow down the footage by simply changing the digits within the box shown above, (to speed up; increase the percentage and to slow down; decrease the percentage). It really is as simple as it looks. I really liked the effect it had upon our music video as a whole, I think that it makes footage more interesting, and fun, rather than keeping everything at the same pace. This is what the slip looked like after changing the speed:

We also added some transitions within the timeline, for example, 'dip to black/dip to white'. If you have working within Adobe Premiere before, you will find it easy when it comes to editing footage within your timeline. What I did when adding ''cross dissolve'' was the following:

1. go to the box situated on the left hand side:

2. click on video transitions, then ''dip to black/dip to white'':

As you can see it is as simple as it sounds. Adding transitions within your footage shows that you work well within the software/technology that you are using. Adobe Premiere allows you to experiment with various transitions which are simple and easy to include. Here is what our selected footage looked like after including the transition ''dip to black/dip to white''...

After editing our footage we decided that we were going to fade the soundtrack towards the end, due to the fact we didn't use up the whole song. This was done in a similar way to adding the transition that I just explained. For example:

...make sure that you have placed you play head onto the exact place within the timeline where you want to start the fade, then, this time click onto the ''audio transitions'' (left hand side) and then click on ''crossfade'' and last of all click onto the ''exponential fade''

here is the outcome:

Overall Adobe Premiere helped us create our music video in the ways in which we aimed to achieve. The software allowed us to include techniques and transitions to present our music video in a specific way. Without Adobe Premiere, we wouldn't have been able to achieve what we have done so far. Being able to include various cuts, was one of our most used and valued features that Adobe Premiere allowed us to create. This technology is also fairly simple and easy to use which also benefited us, as a whole, as we were able to create our music video in the right amount of time with minimal help.

#LucySimpson

Question three evaluation.

#lucysimpson #beccadowdeswell

Photoshop - Lucy Simpson

Here is one of the photo's that I created using Photoshop. First of all we watched a YouTube tutorial that carried us through each and every individual step explaining how to use Photoshop and what effects work best. In this photograph I gathered two pictures from Google, one being a view of New York and the other being a close up shot of wood. The first step that I began with was adding the photograph of New York to photoshop and then edited that by itself. (saturation, brightness and contrast) Once I edited that photograph, I dragged in the photo of the wood which was placed on top of the New York photo, as a 2nd layer. After adding the photograph on top of the Picture of New York, I then began to edit overall. I worked with various effects, such as, changing the transparency percentage, contrast, saturation and other interesting layered effects on Photoshop.

This task was very helpful in terms of building our overall confidence with Photoshop. The step by step YouTube guidance video was gave us an indication of what effects work really well and also how to use certain features within Photoshop that some of us didn't know about before-hand.

This task is also something that we can all look back on when we are set tasks that involve using Photoshop, as we have all now used different features that we weren't so confident about before completing this set task.

#lucysimpson

Fergie Influence - Daisu Biamonti

Compared to our original ideas our video was altered massively due to events that could not be avoided therefore the overll feel of the video was also altered.

Instead of using dancers within our music video we decided that solely focusing on the actress who was playing Fergie would suitable. We felt this because of her music video 'Big Girls Don't Cry' where she is portrayed as vulnerable and shown in intimate settings. This is very contrasting to her London Bridge video where she is very flamboient and confident. As shown in the comparison shots below her London Bridge Video directly below portrays her as a more vulgar sex symbol. Whereas the second shot down shows her in a completely different intimate setting, showing her in a vulnerable loving situation.

We wanted to incorporate different aspects of each video into our own by taking the vulnerable yet classy image Fergie portrays in Her London Bridge video, and adding it to our video within the costume and attitude.

Fergie has a very strong attitude seeping with confidence, so we decided that we would keep that aspect but make it personal to our actress Becca as it is a very difficult thing to imitate.

As shown below the costume in both videos are very different, London Bridge shows Fergie in skimpier outfits that show off her womanly figure.

Whereas the Big girls dont cry show her in much classier, covered up outfits. This attracted us as we do not agree with the image that is connected to women in music videos, although when used in the appropriate places can be extremely attractive and effective.

We decided to use both aspects of costume in our video in a particular way that both portrayed the image of the song as well as the vulnerability of big girls dont cry.

You only see Becca's (actress playing Fergie) torso throughout the video, where she is seen wearing a black leather jacket with a fur collar. As mentioned before we liked Fergie's image in Big Girls Don't Cry better so used the covered up classy image for Becca, as shown in the shot below.

We wanted to change the way Fergie uses, nudity/lack of clothing by only showing a small section of naked skin in our video music,but in a way that shows the actress in a very self aware, to increase intrigue and leave more to the imagination.

#DaisyBiamonti

Fergie Analysis and comparison - REBECCA DOWDESWELL

FERGIE - ORIGINAL MUSICIAN

Here is a photographic image of Fergie, the artist who originally sung 'London Bridge'. As we used her music, we decided to base our own character and star persona around Fergie also but however create a new image for her. Fergie is seen as a stereotypical 'pop star' within the industry as she has beauty, talent and wealth. Fergie's music videos are all fairly similar in comparison with each other as they all convey a strong image of 'America' and the 'high life'.

Fergie is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer, television host and actress. She featured within the group 'Black eyed peas' then led onto going Solo and becoming Fergie - The dutchess. She is a highly successful artist.

Fergie's star persona goes alongside Ariel Levy's raunch culture theory as she is portrayed as a 'sexual image' this is shown through Fergie's clothing and body language. She always appear lacking clothing or is seen in very 'saucy' items of clothing - in similarity her clothing line is very raunchy.

BECCA 'AS FERGIE'

We tried to re-create Fergie's image however, change it slightly so conventions are challenged. Within the music industry now, the highly successful artists as seen as individual and unique and as we wanted our character to be successful we have tried to re-create this.

In similarity to Fergie, for our star persona we tried to make her achieve the Ariel Levy theory also. This was a very strong part of Fergie's star persona and many other pop star artists. We tried to achieve this through many conventions i have explained in past blogs.

#beccadowdeswell

Update - Lucy Simpson

Monday 16th December: Blog work, working on evaluation and any other un-finished work.

Wednesday 18th December: Blog work, evaluation work, question 4.

Thursday 19th December: Complete ALL evaluation and blog work.

#lucysimpson

DigiPak inspiration - Lucy Simpson

When researching patterns, shapes and design for our DigiPak, I found that I was most interested in symmetrical patterns and bright colours. I really enjoy exotic colours and random patterns that involve a lot of broad detail and thought. Most of all I think that I was inspired by fashion designers such as Givenchy, and the patterns that they include within their products. Here are a few examples that I really admired:

I think that most of all I really enjoy the uniqueness of the patterns that are included in many clothing pieces within the Givenchy collection. I also think that the colour gives the pattern a new lease of life, it's extremely eye-catching and extravagant as a whole.

Even though our final DigiPak has no colour and is only using black and white, we have in fact included pattern, which I think fits really well. I think that the pattern we have included on one side of the DigiPak resembles some of the research I carried out previously.

Here is a photograph of our final digipak:

As you can see, the pattern used within the inside of the digipak is very decorative and artist. We all, as a group really liked the idea of including an artistic feel within all three tasks, (music video, digipak and advertisement)

#lucysimpson

Evaluation Question 1: Daisy Biamonti

Evaluation task

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

#DaisyBiamonti

Daisy Biamonti Digipak: Final Version

#DaisyBiamonti

Music video inspiration - Lucy Simpson

As a group, we have all been inspired by many different music video’s. I have specifically been inspired by artists such as Rihanna (music video’s such as; ‘We Found Love’ and ‘Rude Boy’), Kanye West (such as; ‘All Of The Lights’ and ‘Mercy’) and also Miley Cyrus (such as; ‘Wrecking Ball’ and ‘We Can’t Stop’).

I’ve looked upon many popular music video’s for overall, general ideas that have inspired me, and also to in hope that I could build some knowledge on specific camera shots/angles, text involvements and eye-catching cuts.

One music video that I really admire would be, Miley Cyrus ‘Wrecking Ball’. The reason why I like this video in particular is simply because of the shots that are included. Despite how simple the majority of the shots are, I think that the close ups are really interesting, especially due to the sharpness. I think that the close ups are very truthful, in terms of, showing the artists features, for example:

…As you can see, the sharpness gives the image a more eccentric feel. I think that overall the white background brings out Miley’s features a lot more than any other, which I really like as a whole. The vibrancy of the lipstick and her eyes really stand out due to this factor. I think that the close-up shot identifies Miley’s emotions within the video a lot more due to the closeness of the shot compared to if it was from a distance.

The beginning of the video completely contrasts Cyrus’ ‘new persona’ as it is quite innocent and sincere. As the video progresses, you can begin to see the evolution of her changed persona. It turns to a more sexualised vision of her and she gives of a completely different impression. The setting and mise-en-scene within the video links in particularly well with the new direction she is taking. Miley Cyrus has changed significantly over the last year or two. She has created herself a new rebellious persona of which she is not noticed by. The public now look at her as a young woman rather than a girl. You can see that she has grown up through her new revealing image, as she is no longer seen as a Disney character. I think that changing her image has increased her fame and noticeability.

#lucysimpson

Evaluation task - REBECCA DOWDESWELL

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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Within our music video, Digi Pak and advertisement we developed forms and conventions of real media products through many techniques, as well as challenged. The star persona we created for our character has been fairly portrayed throughout our music video, Digi Pak and advertisement. The star persona we created was very 'outrageous' 'classy' and 'raunchy' this was done through many conventions such as mise-en-scene and editing which we also carried out through the genre of 'POP'. The three media products are all similar in many various ways as they have to connect and join yet also still contain the same conventions.

The music video would be shown world-wide, so it has to appeal to a mass audience. The media packages have to be created to look professional. We planned and researched thoroughly as a group and individually to create conventions which make our video look finished and appealing.

We endured many faults within production such as back-up plans and making sure the editing is done to the highest possible standard. To make our music video look as professional as possible, we had to make sure the lip-syncing is one time and matches the musicians mouth - this is crucial as if not done correctly, automatically the video does not look finalized.

DIGIPAK

As part of our media products, this is the digipak. We tried to portray our characters star persona throughout the product, so the audience purchasing the product can perceive 'Fergie' through the artwork and images. We decided to create one side of the digipak to be darker, and the other side lighter with the use of colouring. The idea for this is as we are trying to depict a subtle heaven and hell imagery through the digi pak. This goes alongside Fergie's star persona as 'naughty' but 'nice' however in a simplistic way.

We challenged convention with our digipak as we have not seen the heaven and hell imagery used before, and it creates a strong impact.

We tried to portray our star persona as very 'classy' and 'sophisticated' . We created this by using imagery such as artistic images and also a black and white colour scheme. The photographic images we chose are of the character Fergie, herself. We added these images in so the album had slight photographic imagery in and also to show the 'POPSTAR' Fergie is.

The Advertisement is another part of our media product. We tried to make the Advertisement similar to the Digipak, so the theme is fairly similar through out, we also made the artistic and photographic imagery similar to the digipak so they match. We decided to edit the photographic image to make some parts visible and some not, this is to cause slight mystery behind the artist - This goes alongside Fergie's star persona which may be conveyed as slightly mysterious. This may be challenging convention as the artistic theme with use of real art images is not fairly used and within other advertisements we did not come across this type.

Fergie's genre of music is 'POP' which has tried to convey through the media formations with use of imagery, writing and editing. However, to challenge the norm and challenge conventions we have created our character to be very modern/futuristic and also artistic rather than the typical 'cheesy pop' artist.

We included the artists Twitter as well as Facebook onto the Advertisement, so the audience who may be interested in the artist may look her up and track what she is doing or has to say. The Social media has a huge part in musicians roles now as you can build a strong and large fan base.

MUSIC VIDEO

Here is a screenshot from our media production music video. As visible, this is a close up and distorted shot of the character Fergie. The pop genre convention is conveyed and developed through the mise-en-scene such as the make-up. The red lipstick and heavy eye make-up which could represent Fergie as a very 'Glamorous' character. The big heavy jewelry such as the big crystal earrings could also perhaps represent an image of wealth which is what a modern pop star would maybe wear.

The lighting has a very dark contrast and and saturation which could represent that the room Fergie is in may be dark or it perhaps may be night which is very mysterious.

All of these represent a very conventional, modern and stereotypical 'pop star'.

no conventions have been challenged in this shot.

MUSIC VIDEO

The backdrop within this image shows London in the background which goes alongside the song 'London bridge'.

The costuming within the mise-en-scene is also very extravagant. Alongside the make-up and jewelry within the other screen shot, the clothing in this shot may represent the characters wealth - which is a very large representation of a modern musician as it creates lust and jealousy from the audience which leads them to idolizing the musician.

We developed conventions within this shot as we created our musician to be 'wealthy' which is a common representation of a pop star currently.

MUSIC VIDEO

Here the shot is a lot clearer and very basic. We was inspired by 'Terry Richardsons' photography with the bright lighting in the background and basic photography. The hair and make-up is similar through-out the whole of the video however Fergie appears to have no clothes on. This may be to cause Sexual desire towards the character - The reason for this is so the audience once again Lusts Fergie and perhaps could come under 'Ariel Levy's' Theory. This develops conventions as within recent music video's such as 'Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball' who has also used Terry Richardson shots and no clothing, this is what inspired us for our music video.

The editing within the shot is very 'pop' with the big, bold lyrics which is so the audience can sing-along to the song so perhaps it becomes more catchy and easy to remember.

It is debatable whether conventions are challenged or developed in this shot as although Miley Cyrus created the same style shot, she caused controversy for challenging the norm. However because she has already challenged the convention, we may have developed it as it's already been done.

MUSIC VIDEO

Here we decided to go with Fergie's silhouette within the similar Terry Richardson lighting. From the start when we conducted research we decided to use this style shot which we was influenced from Kanye West's video's such as 'Bound 2' and also 'Flashing lights'. We decided the silhouette would cause mystery and and artistic feel which is the style we are trying to portray throughout our media products.

no conventions were challenged within this shot.

MUSIC VIDEO

Here we used the silhouette imagery once again, this time we changed the colours using a brighter yellow. Within the shot the character is dancing - Within the modern music industry, the stereotypical 'pop star' would be seen as a talented singer, musician and dancer as people would look up and aspire to be them - this would be developing the conventions.

The silhouette imagery has been used within a few very recent music videos by artists we based our planning around. Here is a music video which used the silhouette http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBAtAM7vtgc in similarity to our music video, Kanye perhaps tried to challenge conventions by creating something unique.

MUSIC VIDEO

Here is an extreme close-up of Fergie's face which focuses upon her lips. This could be portrayed as seductive as it shows her also wearing bright red lipstick. This could be so the audience concentrates on Fergie's lips which could also relate to Ariel Levy's theory once again which associates with a modern day pop star. The shot seems fairly seductive especially with the red/pink lighting and the hoop earrings.

MUSIC VIDEO

Here Fergie is seen smiling and also happy. This could portray the characters attitude and emotion. This creates a connection with the audience and Fergie being a famous pop star almost had to propose her positive attitude so the audience will like her. Emotion being shown in music videos is very common and simple for example, if someone is shown as warming and welcoming, it may be instinct for the audience to automatically like the character.

As Fergie is new to the music industry and this would be her first music video, to capture the audience and make her 'likeable' we developed convention by the use of happy emotion, so our character is likeable.

MUSIC VIDEO

Once again Fergie is seen seductively holding her finger against her mouth in a close up shot. The close up may indicate that Fergie is the focal point of the music video and as she is the only character it may symbolize that she is the only focus. The imagery is very seductive in shots such as this and as she is the only character within the video it may portray that she is a 'tease' and even though she is seductive she does not need anyone to 'dim her shine' or 'take her spotlight' which is a very dominant, female convention.

We have also challenged convention by adding a new creation to our music video which has not been used before within the music video industry. We done this to create an futuristic image which has not yet been developed. We used a backdrop as the background of moving images however the lighting was also the characters so she is not very visible. We only used this for parts of the shot as we needed a clear vision of what "Fergie" looks like.

This shot is fairly similar to Miley Cyrus' video '23' as the close up, make-up such as the lipstick and sexual body language with her hands is all extremely similar.

__________________.

Altogether, it is visible that our music video develops conventions of real media products more than being challenged. We wanted to create our star persona to be similar to a 'stereotypical popstar' which also develops Ariel Levy's raunch culture theory. As analysed in the paragraphs, this was conveyed through many techniques within our music video, digi pak and also Advertisement. We challenged convention slightly so our Musician, Fergie appears creative and individual which in the music market is very popular at the moment.

Once we had created our music video, we had realized that a lot of our shots are fairly similar to Miley Cyrus' various music videos such as '23' and 'Wrecking Ball'. This was not intended, however, Miley's star persona and image is similar to what we are trying to create for 'Fergie'

However, the Ancillary tasks and music video's differ. We have challenged conventions within our ancillary tasks by creating a 'new' 'futuristic' image, developing new forms. However, the music video more frequently conforms conventions. Throughout the start of our planning we wanted to achieve this and as a finished result we are pleased.

__________________

Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

___________________

Here is a Prezi which shows how we created an effective media package and what we done to achieve it. I have also analysed the audience and the audience expectations of the products.

http://prezi.com/0u6066ckebl9/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

___________________

Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

___________________

We conducted research to our target audience, aged around Teenagers to young adults. We asked questions about our media package and showed them our final product which gained much positive feedback. If we had more time to create our product, we would have taken the critical feedback into account and edited our video to perfect it. However, we did not have the extra time to do this which would perhaps be done next time if we was to create another music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYqHDJ79k8&feature=youtu.be

____________________

Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

DIGI PAK & ADVERTISEMENT

I created both my ancillary tasks, the Digi Pak and the Advertisement within Adobe Photoshop. I used many similar techniques within both tasks to create my finalised product. I will begin to explain the technologies i used and what purpose each technology was used for to achieve my goals of the final product.

To begin the ancillary task, i placed the image within Photoshop, as our product contains many layers we would have to repeat this task - adding more images within the main image. We dragged the chosen image within to Photoshop from the desktop - as seen in the picture. We decided to layer our products because it creates more impact and looks more interesting as one image may look basic.

Within the ancillary tasks, text was crucial. Adding text is very simple and basic, however choosing a text was also an important decision. There is a simple text tool on the left side of photoshop and all you do is highlight the area you wish to insert the text. We then changed the size of the text to as of where it was positioned. The titles and sub-headings would be larger so it is more visible and is more important, then the text such as the reviews and album track names would be smaller as otherwise it would not all fit in. The name of the text we decided to use was 'Trajan pro', we decided to use this within all of our products as alongside the theme, it is very classy and sophisticated.

As our Ancillary tasks are primarily based on a black and white theme it was very important once the image is placed we had made the image black and white to cause no confusion. Within the editing tools on the side, there is a black and white tool. To make the image black and white all we needed to do is press the tool button. We decided to go for the black and white theme because it looks very classy and modern - we did not use the same colour scheme within the music for purpose that the theme of the video was flashing lights, we decided to contrast our products. If the image needed to be slightly lighter or perhaps darker we would just adjust the contrast or saturation.

Within the digipak, we created each separate face on a single page within Photoshop, once we had created the face, we saved it to a JPEG, which was then placed within a Digi Pak template, we decided this would be better as each image would be more detailed and we would be able to see everything much more clear.

The DigiPak and Advertisement which edited on Adobe Photoshop gained positive feedback, however as a group we would have wanted to have more time to create the products to make them more detailed. We timed our lessons however, as we obtained many absences as a group, the time plan was not achieved and we had less time on the ancillary tasks as thought. Despite this, we are pleased with the ancillary tasks as it is to the highest ability we could have achieved within the dead line we had and it explains everything we wanted to explain.

All together, the technologies combine to create a final piece. The main factor we used was 'layering' which is placing an image on top of an image over and over again to create these layers. Adobe Photoshop was used for our ancillary task, as we used Adobe premier to create our music video which join with each other. Both technologies are fairly simple to use once you have gathered where the tools and buttons are and the more time spent using the technologies, the more experienced you become using it.

#beccadowdeswell

Advertisement inspiration and analysis - REBECCA DOWDESWELL

Alongside our Digipak we had to create a advertisement to go with it, in a past blog i have analysed our own advertisement, however in this post i am going to analyse the inspiration and artists.

_______

Here is a Advertisement from Ellie Goulding found in many UK magazines. I gathered inspiration from this advert and i like the fact the photographic image is the focal point of the advertisement - this is very eye-catching. The advertisement has been based around the name of her single 'lights' as the editing shows also lighting in the background. The bottom of the advertisement shows the rating of the album and also the feedback as well as the music label. I realized that the Advertisement did not include a photograph of the digipak itself.

When i created my Advertisement i took inspiration from this as the main focal point of the picture is the Singer herself. I chose not to add a picture of the digipak also as it looked 'out of place' and bulky within the Advertisement.

Ellie Goulding Digipak Advertisement

In comparison to Ellie Gouldings advertisement, Musician Rihanna's digipak is similar in many ways. The photographic image of the musician is also the focal point image, however the contrast and lighting is very different and creates a very 'natural' and 'healthy' look. Rihanna's Advertisement contains a lack of writing which creates the feel of a very simplistic image.

From this Advertisement, i was inspired to also use big bold writing within our own advertisement. The large writing is very appealing and is extremely visible which would be necessary for our own advertisement.

Rihanna Digipak Advertisement

After conducting a large amount of research within current and past Digipak and Advertisements, we developed many ideas as to which techniques and images would draw in a mass audience. Possible research within asking questions to the public about what they like could have been done however with the short time limit - it was not possible.

#beccadowdeswell

Homework - Lucy Simpson

Task:

Choose a mainstream music video artist and argue if you agree or disagree with Levy, that these artists are conforming to or challenging ''Raunch Culture''

Do you think Levy's ideas are applicable to your video at all?

Do you think this equally true of male artists in the music industry nowadays?

_________________________________________________________

''A few years ago I noticed something strange. I would turn on the television and find strippers in pasties explaining how best to lap-dance a man to orgasm. I would flip the channel and see babes in tight, tiny uniforms bouncing up and down on trampolines. Britney Spears was becoming increasingly popular and increasingly unclothed, and her undulating body ultimately became so familiar to me I felt like we used to go out together'' - Ariel Levy.

Ariel Levy is a woman who has explored deeply within the term ''Raunch Culture'' over the years. She has recognized and identified changes within everyday life, including; mainstream celebrities and also some of those who are close to her, as said here: ''Some odd things were happening in my social life, too. People I knew (female people) liked going to strip clubs (female strippers). It was sexy and fun, they explained; it was liberating and rebellious.''

Ariel Levy questioned how culture had changed so dramatically over a short period of time. She had noticed that many celebrities have changed their attitude and appearance over the recent years. One example she stated was in fact, Britney Spears, writing about how popular she became and how quickly she began to wear less and less clothing. Overall her aspect on ''Raunch Culture'' is very negatively spoken about. One phrase she used was: ''Female chauvinist pigs'' which she related to woman in this century.

_________________________________________________________

The artist that I have chosen to study is Rihanna.

Rihanna is one of the mostly widely recognised female music artists to this day. She has many trade marks of which she is noticed by, for example, her forever changing hairstyles, Bajan accent, revealing outfits and also her tattoos. She is also known for her extravagant music videos, two of which, (S&M and Te Amo) were banned in several countries on the day of release.

I think that Rihanna challenges the idea of ''Raunch Culture'' completely, due to her bold attitude and overall spontaneous personality. I think that most of all, her image explores a range of sexual acts that she has strongly presented throughout her career, specifically due to her tasteful lyrics and eye catching performances. I think that Rihanna is now-a-days known for her behavior and less for her music. Being a fan of Rihanna myself, I do agree that she has changed over time dramatically, in good ways and in bad ways, however I do now think that she is now recognised for more than just her music but also for her newly released fashion label (River Island), appearances in films, and most of all, her new rebellious behavior.

I have chosen to look into and research Rihanna's newly released music video ''Pour It Up''

Pour It Up was released on October 2nd, 2013.

Throughout the video for 'Pour It Up' you see Rihanna herself dressing in minimal clothing surrounded by strippers dancing on poles..

Their are many shots included within the video itself, many of which are close up of the strippers. The lyrics to the song explain how she has pretty much got enough money to rule anybody. They also underline her power and strong ability. It's as if she is trying to prove a point that she isn't bothered by 'anyone's' opinion that they have upon her, as many parts during the song follow the repetitive lyric 'I still got more money'.

I think that the overall concept of the music video links in very well with the lyrics as a whole. Each lyric is pretty much within the music video itself, (e.g. pole dancers, strippers, money, minimal clothing, and water)

I think that the video as a whole revolves around the idea of ''Raunch Culture'' as it explores a range of sexual references. Part of the video shows Rihanna herself dancing with money tucked into her revealing costume, which suggests she's getting paid to dance in front of an audience. I think that Rihanna has changed dramatically over the last 5 years, in terms of her appearance. For example, here is a screen shot of Rihanna in her music video for 'Unfaithful' released in 2006...

Compared to (for example) her video for 'Rude Boy' released in 2010:

Both of these Music Video's mentioned, differentiate in terms of clothing, attitude, content and also the song lyrics. You will notice that Rihanna has become a lot more confident over the years. I think that Rihanna is becoming widely known for her sex appeal towards her target/chosen audience. However I do think that her fans appreciate her journey from beginning as a young innocent female to a very dominant woman.

I overall think that Ariel Levy has the right idea when it comes to ''Raunch Culture'' as over the years the majority of female artists have become more and more confident with themselves and have shown this throughout their on-going career. (through lyrics and music videos). However I don't necessarily think that ''Raunch Culture'' is all negative, as it's not effecting people in general, I think that the only people that it may effect, are the younger generation as those are the ones who are going to be watching and are most likely going to copy/imitate, however those who are older are more guarded and are less likely to copy. ''Each to their own'', I think that artists should carry on presenting themselves in whatever way they please (to a certain extent).

_________________________________________________________

I don't necessarily think that Ariel Levy's ideas are applicable within our music video as the shots that we have included aren't revolved around a certain sex appeal, however, some shots that we have filmed show our main character in minimal clothing which may portray certain aspects of Ariel Levy's theory. The character within our music video also gives off certain sexual references, such as the different facial expressions used, some of which look directly into the camera with a seductive look.

Despite presenting our main character in certain ways that some people may link in with Ariel Levy's theory, of ''Rauch Culture'', I, myself, don't think that Ariel Levy's theory applies to our music video, as we haven't necessarily included a range of sexual content. Our video doesn't revolve around a certain sex appeal and was never intended to. I think that what we have included isn't too extreme (certain facial expressions and scenes with minimal clothing) and is perhaps considered as 'tame'

_________________________________________________

I think that it is certainly equal that both male and female artists in the music industry convey Ariel Levy's theory of ''Raunch Culture''. I do think that over time, a lot of music that males produce, include raunchy/sexual lyrics which are given for a specific sex appeal. An example of this could be; Trey Songz. Trey Songz is widely known for his charm and also his love for women. Here is an extract from his song, 'Neighbours Know My Name'...

''Bet the neighbors know my name They be stressin' while we sexin''

The lyrics convey Ariel Levy's theory completely, as he is singing about having sexual contact with a woman. The music video for this specific song, shows Trey Songz with an anonymous woman (in this case; the girl acting as the stimulus to his lyrics) in her underwear. Throughout the video (beginning to end) you are watching 3 minutes worth of sexual acts shown here:

I would assume that most music channels avoid presenting this music video, due to some of the footage that is within the video as some people think that it wouldn't be acceptable for younger viewers to be looking at.

#lucysimpson

Billboard magazine research - Lucy Simpson

Billboard is an American music magazine, headquartered in New York City.The magazine is owned by Prometheus Global Media. The first Billboard magazine was published on November 1, 1894, and is distinguished as being among the oldest trade magazines in the world. The magazine originally focused on bill posting and outdoor amusements before specializing in the music industry in the 1960s.

Billboard magazine has covered many well-known music artists to this day, such as, Rihanna, Lady GaGa and Justin Bieber. Billboard magazine maintains several internationally-recognized record charts, which track the most popular songs and albums across several categories on a weekly basis. Its primary charts, the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200, respectively rank the top songs and albums regardless of genre, and are based on digital downloads, radio airplay, and internet streaming.

Here are a few examples from many of the Billboard Magazines:

This Billboard cover is of Trey Songz. The mid-shot, showing himself from his chest upwards gives the audience the view of which you would look at someone in person (approximately). The mid-shot still shows details to the face, as well as the upper body, but pays less attention to the lower body. I think that using a mid-shot helps present its subject (in this case; Trey Songz) in a more detailed manor, showing enough for it's audience, as if they are looking at the whole subject.

Billboard is the world's most influential music media brand reaching key executives and taste-makers in and around the music business through Billboard Magazine, Billboard.biz, Billboard Conferences, Billboard Bulletin, and other targeted newsletters, and millions of music fans through Billboard.com and Billboard Events.

The Billboard brand is built on its exclusive charts and unrivaled reporting on the latest news, issues and trends across all genres of music. Billboard receives hundreds of millions of brand impressions daily through many strategic relationships with major companies across various industries. These relationships leverage Billboard's brand recognition, proprietary chart data and information resources to develop products, live events and print, television, radio, digital and mobile platforms. In addition to North America, Billboard operates businesses in Brazil, Greece, Japan, Korea and Russia

I think that Billboard magazine is the perfect magazine to look upon for research in terms of this coursework piece as it is one of the most well known magazines in terms of the music industry, to this day. I also think that it fits our groups music video very well as we are using a well known song from the Pop/R&B singer, Fergie. I also found out that Fergie was once on the cover of Billboard magazine which is also really helpful as it gives us idea's of which we could include in our own magazine/advertisement cover..

Studying of Billboard front covers..

In this example of a Billboard cover (Lily Allen)

I think that the cover is very basic as it is simply a close up of Lily Allen's face, however I do really like the high contrast and brightened skin tone as I think it primarily highlights her features a lot more than perhaps the original photo (non-edited version), and it also, I think, pays more attention to smaller things, which I may have not noticed before-hand.

#lucysimpson

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