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Music Video Evaluation Presentation Daisy Westlotorn

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

+ Before we began planning the initial idea of our music video, we carried out research into the codes and conventions of a music video. This codes and conventions research was focused heavily of Andrew Goodwin's Theory of music videos. Goodwin’s theory primarily focuses on six elements which can be analysed in any music video. These elements include a demonstration of genre characteristics, a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, a relationship between the music and visuals, record label demands, reference to the notion of looking and finally Intertextual references.

In the music video we tried to include each code and convention when it was relevant to the genre of music we had chosen to produce a video for. As we were attempting to address each individual code and convention of a music video; we had to spend time researching typical elements of a dance video-to ensure our video itself reflected this particular genre of music.

+1.Demonstrate genre characteristics

Through the research I had carried out, I had discovered that the most obvious characteristics of a ‘dance’ music video included a form of dancing performed during the video itself, cuts which followed the beat of the song-which were usually of a faster pace and an extensive use of bright colours.

Throughout our music video we included various short dance sequences including tap, ballet and freestyle (as shown in the images below). From our original planning we wanted to include some style of dance in the video, we slightly changed the traditional styles of dance featured within a dance video by opting to include tap and ballet. We merged all three styles of dance by adding the same editing style for each scene-which in turn worked better for the type of video we were aiming to create.

The music video screenshots also show the use of bright colours sustained throughout our video-a key feature of the genre. We purposely chose to use these vibrant colours during the dance sequence to highlight their presence, as the dance sequences were a significant feature of our music video.

+2.Relationship between lyrics and visualsThe obvious relationship between lyrics and visuals in a music video was the use of a narrative reflecting the lyrics. However, our narrative was portraying the slogan of our artist-which was ‘sleep all day, party all night’.

We tried to link in a relationship between lyrics and visuals by placing the lyrics themselves visually throughout the video at various dance sequences. We used a particular design of typography which we felt portrayed the style of the song itself. Originally we wanted to have an effect on the text which made it seems as if the lyrics were jumping out, although after some research we found this was impossible to do and subsequently had to abandon the idea and instead leave the text as it was. Due to this issue we faced, we had to get each word written in perfect unison with the lyrics as they were being sung so that they followed the rhythm and timing of the song. Another way we thought was a good idea of making the lyrics stand out was to use brightly coloured font against a dance sequence background which resembled a black and white sketch (as shown in the images below).

+3.Relationship between music and visuals

The idea of the lips originally came from watching one of Rihanna’s music videos, where the lips were a recurring motif throughout the video. We did want to have the lips as a recurring motif throughout our music video which we seemed to have achieved in regard to the feedback we received about this particular part of the video. Although we did not want our video to resemble the music video we initially got the idea from, so we decided to use the lip footage by adding split screens which appeared on the screen at different points of entry when a new beat was introduced in the song.

One of the main sequences in our music video is a multiple split screen of the same pair of feet dancing. This small shot increases in numbers as it divides on the screen and then decrease in numbers as it begins to leave the screen. As this appears and fades the music reaches a climax and then slowly as larger beats enter more small screens are removed from the overall picture. The images below show the continuing sequence giving an idea of how this part of the music video works.

+4.Record label demands

“Sony Music Entertainment is a global recorded music company with a roster that includes a broad array of both local artists and international superstars. The company boasts a vast catalog that comprises some of the most important recordings in history. It is home to premier record labels representing music from every genre. Sony Music Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America.”-sonymusic.com

Straight after we had chosen the artist we wanted we then had to connect them with a record label, we believed Sony BMG would be the best suited to the artist we had in mind. Sony BMG is a global company comprising of some of the most well known artists of all time, some present artists including Chris Brown, Avril Lavinge, One Direction and Foo Fighters. We had distinguished that our artist was going to have to fit into this category with an exaggerated music video showing of the music rather than the music being hidden under a complicated narrative.

Sony BMG represent music from all genres of music and therefore fit perfectly with our genre of music which was Dance. Dance tracks become some of the most recognisable tracks in society therefore having such a well known platform to present our artist on would let us be more flexible with how we wanted to portray DJ DES in the current music market.

+ We also used many close ups throughout the video to make our artist recognisable to the audience. Originally we wanted to keep the identity of our artist secret but found this would be very hard if we wanted to make our artist mainstream.

We decided to feature a lip motif throughout the music video also, adding to the identity of the artist. By making this relationship between the lip motifs and the artist made it easier for the artist to be recognised for something different in comparison to just DJ DES’s face.

+5.Reference to notion of looking

During the planning of the video never included a shot which gave reference to the notion of looking. As we gradually began editing our video and found that there were spaces which needed to be filled, we needed to film more footage.

In our first filming session, we put together a shot of DJ DES writing on a mirror with lipstick, however the lighting we had used was of a low standard and in turn made the shot look weak. So when we discovered we needed more footage we filmed the scene of the writing on the mirror with the lipstick again. This time we made sure the setting was bright and also used a lipstick colour which would show up well on the mirror. The images below show the difference between the first shooting of the scene and the second shooting of the scene:

The notion of looking is presented through the audience being able to see what DJ DES would be seeing in her reflection on the mirror. The red lipstick works well against the brighter background which links in with the bright colours use featured throughout the music video.

+6.Intertextual reference

When we decided to change the song of our music video, we knew what direction we wanted to take with our new song choice. A large majority of the ideas we had for our video came from many of Rihanna’s music video, mostly those for the songs “Rude Boy”, “Who's that chick” and “You da one”. Many of the ideas we picked up from these music videos fitted in with many of the genre characteristics we had discovered during the research stage of project. Mainly the bright colours used in these music videos we wanted to interpret into our own song and therefore still fit the stereotypical look of an upbeat music video. Here are some examples of the bright colours featured in the music video:

Below are some of the very inspirational shots from Rihanna's music videos that we liked the most and thought would fit in with both our music video concept and also the type of artist we hoped to have created:

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

+Digipak During the process of making my digipak, I changed my design around ten times. Each time I created a new digipak the colours often would not fit with my poster or the entire digipak itself would not reflect to type of artist we were looking to form. After a photo-shoot of DJ DES, I began editing some of the images and found that using the same editing technique for images used on both the digipak and poster would link them together.

I opted for a simple colour scheme to use throughout my digipak, I believed this helped each side of the digipak work well together. I chose to use the same image twice on the inside of the digipak so that it did not look too confusing; although I chose to use an image of DJ DES between these two images to keep the artists identity present throughout the digipak. I thought it would be a good idea to add elements of the music video into my digipak also, the elements I used included the trainers DJ DES is wearing towards the end of the video. During our music video there are some dance sequences which had lyrics from the song over them, the typography used to write these lyrics is the same font which I used to write ‘DJ DES’ on the front cover of my digipak. After showing my digipak to the class for the first time, I received some feedback on areas of improvement. These included adding information about copyright on the back of the digipak cover and also, I found it difficult to find the copyright information I needed so I resulted to writing out copyright information I found on the back of a digipak cover, and changed some of the information to suit the record label we had chosen for DJ DES.

+Poster After looking and analysing some posters I found recurring elements throughout each of them. These included a major feature on the artist, some information about the record label, information about the release upon which the poster was based and also details on possible places where the single or album would be available to purchase or download.

The poster was meant to go with the digi pak I designed so I used the same typography which was featured on my digi pak and I also used a similar editing technique on the image of DJ DES I used as the main focal point of my poster.

After I had shown my poster to the class, I was able to gain feedback on what could possibly we added to my poster in order for it to seem more professional and for it to present all the correct information.

Therefore, I took this feedback on board and added information about the album being available for download from iTunes. Also I added a box in the bottom right corner which gave information about how to follow DJ DES on Twitter and also to like the Facebook page of our artist also. These small changes added more to the poster which would be required information when publicising an artist or musician in this way.

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3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

+First Screening

Elements that need developing:•Bit too short•Clearer cuts•Some shots are too long•Writing on the mirror•More split screens•Clothing on bed sequence repeated once too many

The elements that work:•Good editing•Good effects - could add more!•The dancing•Nice shoes and props•Lips•Animations•Split screens•Split screens when getting ready•Costume•The ballet dancing

For our first screening our aim was to not have any gaps during the music video, we were able to achieve this and receive feedback on the majority of footage we had shot.

+Second Screening

These were the positive comments we received from the final cut of our music video:

Better/clearer narrative

Multi Split Screen

Works with song

Recognisable artist

Lip motif throughout

Photo animation

Our second screening of the music video, was of our final edit. After taking on board all of the feedback we had received from the first screening of the video we changed parts of the video which we had been recommended to change in order for the video to work better.

We had added more footage to the music video after we had to remove previous sequences which did not work with the good footage that we already had. One of the main areas for improvement was the ‘mirror scene’ and ‘the clothes on the bed scene’. In our first filming session, we put together a shot of DJ DES writing on a mirror with lipstick, however the lighting we had used was of a low standard and in turn made the shot look weak. So when we discovered we needed more footage we filmed the scene of the writing on the mirror with the lipstick again. This time we made sure the setting was bright and also used a lipstick colour which would show up well on the mirror. As for ‘the clothes on the bed scene’ we cut down how many time we used the sequence throughout and replaced it with either new footage or more dance sequences.

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

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