Music Video 

Ancillary Texts

Evaluation
Question 1

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

Evaluation
Question 2

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

Evaluation

Question 3 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My focus group: 


The main information I got from this focus group was: 
- The mise-en-scene suits the indie-pop genre, particularly the costume and props. 
- The overlapping of shots was very effective. 
- Shots worked well with the lyrics and represented them effectively. 
- Some of the shots could be considered too long. 
- The abstract theme was different and would stand out from the rest. 
- The slow motion effect worked well with the lyrics and beat of the song. 

Asking peers to watch my music video and tell me what they like and don't like:

The audience feedback of my music video helped me a lot as I tried to ask peers that would be in my target audience, therefore their opinion really mattered to me. A lot of the people I asked were media students, therefore their feedback was relevant and related to mise-en-scene, cinemotgrpahy and editing, meaning they gave advise on how I could improve those areas. The first piece of audience feedback I got was from my media teacher. One of her suggestions was to 'take out some of the bedroom scenes as it makes the video look less 'realistic' and makes it look like it has being filmed in a normal bedroom'. I took this advice into consideration and made alterations to my video, which I believe improved the overall appeal of my video. For example:

This section of my video was when the lyrics 'Feeling super, super, super suicidal' were playing, filmed inside of my bedroom. I chose to remove this clip as following the advise given from my audience feedback. After watching it I did realise that it didn't look professional and the poor lighting in the location reduced the camera quality.

I chose to replace the clip with the clip above, a slight high angle of waves on the beach with an overlay on top with reduced capacity of yellow flowers. This followed the mise-en-scene and ideology of my video and I think overall made it look more professional.

Evaluation 

Question 4

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

2nd draft of music video

2nd draft of music video 

Alterations made

I noticed in the first of my second drafts that I had accidentally got my foot into one of the shots, this has being removed from this draft.

My ancillary texts in the real world 

Ancillary text - Poster

This is the new poster for my album. As you can see the continuity continues into this part of my ancillary, using the same image from the back of my album back cover and the title from the front of the album cover. 

Changes made to digipak 

New ancillary first draft

This is my new digipak. As you can see there are lots of yellow floral patterns taken which have been taken directly from my video which creates continuity throughout my video and ancillary texts. However I'm not 100% sure on this digipak. I asked two peers what they thought of it and they said: 
- I should try removing the images from my discs and instead have the one big flower on one disk and lots of little flowers on the other disk, then moving the image from the disk on to the top right square. 
- They said they liked the back of the CD cover and the front cover, and that they represented my genre. 

New draft for ancillary text back (back of CD cover)

I have decided to change my ancillary texts. I've realised that my ancillary texts don't really suit the ideology of my video, they look to girly. The draft of a back of a CD cover is what I want my ancillary texts to be like, I believe they are more edgy and will create continuity between my ancillary texts and my video. 

Feedback on first draft of music video

Basic/proficient 

Comments: 

-Consider adding an effect over the top of your footage (gray scale/black + white) as it looks like it is simply filmed in front of a wall. 

- When the wind is blowing through the artists hair try making the footage slow motion for added effect. 

- Take out some of the bedroom scenes as it makes the video look less 'realistic' and like it has been filmed in a 'normal' bedroom.

- Consider removing the record effect. 

- The black and white footage over the singer looks good. 

- Too much is happening in the video and this breaks down the continuity (less is more), there is to many different clips. 

First final draft 

Changing during editing music video together 

When editing my footage together I realized that I didn't like the video that I had invisioned when creating my music video. When in the creative environment I found that the cinematgraphy and editing didn't really suit my song, and was quite slow. So I felt like it would be better to 'play around' when editing and basically do what I wanted. Now I have nearly finished editing, there are some elements that are how I planned them to be in my story board, however quite a lot of it has changed. I also realized that there was too much of the artist in the music video, and I felt I needed to add some location shots and  inanimate objects in order to create meaning and a story, for example I have added several shots of flowers. 

Magazine advert - First draft

Digipak - First draft

Adding nail varnish to model in the ancillary text

Adding nail varnish in Photoshop from vickyharman

Idea for ancillary text - CD case

I have decided that instead of having all images on my CD case very wild and edgy images, I am going to have the two cover image as being very girly and tame, and then the images inside being very wild and edgy. This will represent the two sides to every female, the person she is behind closed doors and the person she shows to the general public. 

Photo shoot for ancillary texts

Photo shoot for ancillary text plus additional filming 

Today I will use the green room at college to take pictures for my ancillary text, this is because there is professional lighting in there and a plain background, hopefully making my images look as pro as they can be. I am also going to film some footage for my video, only short shots of her to place in parts of my music video. 

Adding ancillary text and music video makeup ideas to a google image

When taking pictures of my model for my ancillary text I find it hard to make the makeup look as professional as possible, so I often add makeup/blend the already visible makeup using Photoshop. I also blend the complexion of the skin of my model using Photoshop (tools such as Gaussian blur, and the paint brush tool). Above is the process of how I add makeup to images. When planning the makeup for my photo shoots and music video the image in the tutorial above is the one I used to plan the makeup. As you can see in the original image the model is wearing no makeup and her hair is tied back, making it easier to edit. In the tutorial above I have excessively edited this image, in order to practice all possible skills that I could use. Practiced my Photoshop editing skills has helped me a lot, especially for when I edit my ancillary texts. As I am fully aware of how to edit an image it makes making the ancillary text a lot easier, and means I can get them done quicker. 

Ancillary text planning 

Full digipak draft on paper

This is the paper draft of one of my ancillary texts (CD case). As you can see from the images above it includes the front of the CD cover and the back of the CD cover, also two inside images and a CD and DVD. All of these pieces of the CD case include a picture of the model, making a different pose, which is what I hope for my ancillary text to look like. The inspiration for my ancillary text photo shoot is the photographer Terry Richardson, below are some examples of his work: 

The reason I like his photo shoots is because although they are very controversial they are also very 'clean' (as in the white backgrounds, bright lighting) which I think looks extremely effective. I also like the way he has teamed both background and lighting with simple hair/clothes/makeup, when all of these factors are in the same image they work really well together to create something that is extremely simple yet equally as effective. I hope to try and recreate this type of photo shoot for my ancillary text. 

Actress change

Unfortunately I have had to change the actress in my video. Due to employment Lucia was unable to film on weekends, and as she goes to Hull College it meant that we couldn't use the green room at college, we could have filmed on nights however I prefer natural bright lighting for my music video. I have decided to use my friend Bethan as my actress from now on. Bethan also has been dancing from a young age so she is comfortable with the production side of the process and as she goes to the same college as me it means there are more opportunities to film. This change has brought a delay into my filming process however I feel that I can get a lot more filming done.