Creativity

By Sally Paskins

What features of you work would you say are original to you?

• The way I have used bright, vibrant colours to create a retro appearance in all my three products is different to how most media products are presented in today’s media. As I have discovered through researching contemporary magazines, most of them use dull colours.

• The fact that I have used only two locations to film (my lounge and the school’s photography studio) and only one camera. Professional music videos are usually made with more than one camera and use a variety of locations in which the main artist appears.

• Some of the footage in my music video appears slightly grainy, however I wanted this purposely to add the retro and artificial effect. A lot of today’s music videos will want no grain at all and the footage to be of high quality, unless appropriate to the genre, which mine was.

• The fact that I am not conforming to most modern fashions of music videos, albums and magazines, yet still trying appeal to a modern audience is daring. However, from a lot of positive feedback from target audience members, I believe that my products are successful and the fact that they are different and unique to other modern media products will make them stand out.

Which media texts and producers have influenced your creative decisions?

Elements of Bobby Brown’s music video, Every Little Step influenced the way in which I edited certain footage in my music video. I loved how the visuals directly correlated with the beat of the music in Every Little Step, and this inspired to do the same with my visuals and music in my main task.

Michael Jackson has a lot of strong silhouette imagery in his music videos and various of his concert performances. As he was a popular 80s/New Jack Swing artist, I was inspired to use his idea of silhouettes imagery in my music video, as a small tribute to him.

The way in which the words, Michael Jackson are vertically positioned along the right side of the cover inspired me to do something similar with the name, Michael Jameson on my cover.

Michael Jackson’s Bad album cover is perhaps one of the most iconic images of the 80s, as well as being a very iconic image of Michael Jackson himself. Because of such popular and famous imagery associated with this album cover, I wanted to somehow incorporate elements of the cover into my digipak, even if it was only subtle.

For my album digipak and music video, I incorporated a threshold effect which gave my products a ‘Pop Art’ appearance. This was inspired by Madonna’s Celebration album and Andy Warhol’s Pop Art work. In particular, I loved Warhol’s iconic Marylyn Monroe piece, which inspired me to use the 3x3 square template for the front cover of my digipak.

Both Ray Jay Parker’s music video Ghostbusters and the 80s album cover Make You Shake It by funk band The Human Body have neon light colours incorporated in them. Neon colours were very typical of the 80s, therefore I wanted to somehow incorporate a neon light effect in my products.

I created a neon light design for my digipak and music video. As well as using the ‘solarise’ effect on some of my footage which created something similar to a neon glow.

The Autumn Society’s 80s pop art show influenced me to use a comic book effect on my magazine, as well as various special editions of the Mojo and Q Magazine which use bright and a comic book like effect on them.

How successfully does your work engage its audience and provoke its interest?

The vibrant, retro and artificial style of my three products are iconic of the 80s which I have incorporated into all three products. The consistency of screen shots, effects and colours from my main task incorporated into my ancillary tasks give my target audience a clear idea of the genre, therefore hopefully appealing to them to purchase. I believe my three products work together, not just because of the consistency but also because they each portray the same eye-catching, energetic and fun themes that Michael Jameson’s song, ‘Summer Love’ so strongly suggests.

Not only have I used inspiration from the 80s and New Jack Swing Era, I have used some of my own ideas to engage my audience. For example, the beginning of my music video when the camera appears to zoom into the blackness was my own idea and although it is likely it is not original, it is a slightly different way of introducing my music video, which will hopefully engage my target audience right away.

Consider some of the creative choices you had to make during the course of your production – how to use cameras, lighting, dialogue, colour etc. How did you make

these decisions, and how did these contribute to the final production?

• I shot most of my footage on a tripod as I planned to use a a lot of split screens, which can be created more easily when the shot is still. I did also create some moving shots, as from my research I found a lot of music videos had at least some moving shots as this creates pace and keeps the audience engaged. The moving shots in my music video worked well, however I all my shots are very quick anyway, which keeps the pace alive.

• When using colour effects in my music video, I always made sure that each shot was of a different colour to the previous shot, as I thought this was more exciting and appropriate to the genre. When watching the music video back, this proved successful and received much praise. I also used different colour effects, which was yet another way of engaging the audience and keeping the shots interesting. I also did this in my album digipak in the 3x3 template. I made sure each image was a different colour to the previous image, which created a visually powerful effect.

• I thought using the threshold effect on my magazine would not have been clear or a bombardment of too much colour, therefore I decided to use a comic book effect, which proved clearer and very retro.