Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of media products?

Evaluation powerpoint

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Our group prepared video answers to this question, and I have included mine and Anisah's sections above. We talked about applying the theorist Carol Vernallis to our work to see in what ways our product used and challenged conventions. Below the video I have also included a copy of the powerpoint we use in the video.
Earlier on in the project we also looked at Goodwin, and I have also looked at the ways in which Goodwin's theories can be applied to our work. Goodwin claims that "music videos demonstrate genre characteristics", and so when we were constructing our character, we thought about this a lot. We refferenced artists like Lily Allen when thinking about the personna we wanted to put across for her:

Lily Allen vs. Lexi Grace

And also, obviously, we followed the usual conventions of a solo artists' music videos, like for example that she has no instruments, or band members with her. Her clothing also compliments this "Lily Allen" style look that we wanted to create for her- girly, but with a bit of an edge, such as the tight fitting vest top with the Rolling Stones logo and black skinny jeans, a nd the flowery dress "toughened up" with military boots and aviator sunglasses.

Goodwin goes on to state in his theory that there is a relationship between both lyrics and visuals, and in our case the main theme of the video is to "meddle with people's minds", as the lyrics state. The lyrics talk about her living "in a mixed up world", having her heart and the "the things that are inside" "meddled" with, and our visuals illustrate this by presenting a messed up, reversed world. I'm not sure if I would go as far as to say that our visuals are amplifying or illustrative, as we do not have a clear enough message reflected in the video - our message is quite abstract and open to the audience's interpretation, but they do follow some of the main themes of the song.


We have a very strong relationship in our video with the music and visuals, as this is partly what I think keeps our video interesting and exciting - we attempted to cut as frequently as we could on the beats, meaning that the audience never know what to expect. As the beat becomes fragmented in the middle, the visuals break up too, which we did with use of special effects like cross dissolves.

On strong lyrics such as "the things that are inside", we have used veyr precise cutting to the beat (in that particular case, four split screens appearing, one on each beat)

We include a lot of CUs of Lexi, ("money" or beauty shots), which help to really connect her with the audience. Direct address is used pretty much throughout the video.

We also attempted to create motifs for her that run throughout all of our ancillary projects as well; the necklace she is playing with as she sings appears on the front of her album cover, the jumper with two swallows on that she sings the lipsyncs in appears on the inside and back covers of her album. The same swallow design also features on all four panels of our album cover.

There is frequent reference to the notion of looking in our video, but we go against the convention of the camera following her; instead she is completley aware of the camera, almost flirting with it (blowing kisses, laughing) and it is as if it is her that as in control, giving her quite a lot of power.

We also go against the convention of voyeuristic treatment of the female body, except on one occasion where we have an ECU of her doing her lipstick, as although we wanted her to create an aspirational image, we also wanted her to be relatable to and down-to-earth.

Our main intertextual references are Pharcyde-the Drop, and Coldplay-The Scientist, for their use of reverse footage, both of which we drew a lot of inspiration from. We wanted to make sure the reverse footage didn't look tacky or like we'd tried to just be "gimmicky", so we thought a lot about how to make it work. Anisah and I did a practice shoot reversing footage which went we really well, which really gave us the confidence boost we needed to go ahead with it

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As a group we decided that the website and the album cover were the two ancillary products we wanted to produce.

I think our combination of the main product the music video and these two ancillary products was extremely effective in producing an identity or brand for our singer Lexi. We had initial worries at the beginning about our main product and how effective the reverse footage would be, and whether the audience would really get it. I think it was a big risk to take and am so pleased that it has paid off; our audience all mentioned that the reverse shots worked really well. I think our music video is successful in following some of the basic conventions of music video but with it's own unique twist, and is modern, up-to-date, colourful and fun.


What it was important to put across with the two ancillary products however was a sense of depth of personality for Lexi. While we wanted her to be fun, and down-to-earth and someone the audience could relate with, we had to put across a sexy, more grown-up side of her that would really get young fans aspiring to be like her. The image we wanted to create for her was similar to Pixie Lott's. While Pixie is a down-to-earth, nineteen year old girl who seems fun, out-there and upbeat, her album cover and website portray a more serious, sexy image that elevate her to an aspirational position for both male and female fans. Although it was difficult, I feel that we were successful in portraying a similar image for Lexi - she comes across as smiley, confident and fun in her video but we show her capability for a smouldering and sophisticated look on her album cover and website. 


We worked really hard to ensure that the final three products were not just three separate pieces promoting the same artist: it was important to link all three as this is a strong convention of the music industry.We used a set text across the website and album cover, which is a convention of some other solo artists we looked at such as Pixie Lott and Katy Perry, who use the same font across all of their merchandise. We felt this was an important convention to follow as it is fundamental in creating an "identity" or a brand for a popstar.

Pixie Lott's website banner and album cover.

Another convention of the solo artists we looked at was that they had a "welcome" page when you entered into their website, which pictured their album, linked to a website where you could order it. This not only promotes sale of the album, forcing the target market to look at it, but creates a synergy between the products, so we decided this was a convention that we would also follow.

The album covers of young female solo artists we looked at did not seem to over do it with the colours. They were simple, sexy and understated.

Colour schemes were something we thought about a lot. Our video was so colourful and vibrant with the beautiful London backdrops and we decided that continuing on these loud, bright colours on the album cover and website would simply be too much, and we didn't want to over do it as this could have the effect of making the two other ancillary product look unprofessional. Therefore we chose to base the colour scheme around her grey jumper and navy dress, as these colours were more professional. We used a warm, glowing, orange light on the photos for the backdrop of her website and the front cover so that even though there wasn't loads of colours, it still kept a warm, inviting feel. The red of her lipstick also jumps out in a few of her shots. By keeping the colour schemes similar across the album cover and website however we are still able to keep a sense of synergy.

It was also important to create some visual hooks or motifs throughout all three ancillary products, linking them together. In some of our lip-syncing shots, for example, we have Lexi wearing the same jumper as on the back cover and middle panels of her album cover.

There is further continuity with alternative lip-syncing shots of Lexi in a navy dress with gold chains, which she wears in the photo which we used as the back-drop for the website. She plays with a necklace that is hanging round her neck as she sings in some of the shots, and this continues as a motif on the front of her album cover where she is biting the same necklace. Our final, and probably the most important motif, is the swallow. The swallow is pictured on the front of the grey jumper in the middle and back panels of her album, and we have superimposed the swallow flying off her jumper so that it can be seen in the shadow. We have then continued on this swallow motif on all of the remaining panels of her album cover and on her website. 

Cross-platform marketing was also key in the linking of all three of our products. The back cover of our album cover has the address of our website and the website advertises the album, so they promote each other both ways. Links on Lexi's website also take you to her facebook and Twitter pages, promote the winning of tickets to her events, and enable you to buy her merchandise and signed copies of her album, so the website really endorses Lexi as a brand as well as as an artist, and can interact with her.

I'm really pleased overall with how our two ancillary products support our main product. I think we put across a strong message about Lexi as an up-and-coming, vibrant, young popstar, which is clear across all three products, and they all tie in with one another effectively.

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learnt from your Audience Feedback?

Our audience feedback was extremely informative, and although mostly postive it enabled us to also find out where we could improve our work from the perspective of the target market. 

Our two main target markets were:

Older teenage girls between around 16-19:

Likes and interests: fashion, spending time with friends, going out to clubs, shopping, make-up, festivals and concerts.

Favourite artists: Lily Allen, Pixie Lott

Personality traits: Fun-loving and out-going, girly

 The kind of person who would relate to Lexi and find a lot in common with her, and also aspire to be like her.

Teenage boys from around 14-19

Likes and interests: girls, concerts, going out, spending time with friends

Favourite artists: dance or pop music

Personality traits: loud, funny, laddish

The kind of person who would aspire to be with Lexi

A secondary target market would also be younger girls, perhaps interested in dancing and music who would aspire to be like Lexi, and get taken to her concerts by their parents and so on.

We screened our music video to around 40 members of our main target audience groups, and handed out the the following questionnaire for them to fill out. This is an example of one of the questionnaires we received back:

Audience Questionnaire

 We also collected some feedback on video:

We collected the questionnaires in and compiled the results, most of which were positive.

Positive feedback:

• All of our audience were able to identify the singer
• Around 90% of our audience claimed that the video looked professional
• Around 90% of our audience also said that the video appealed to them
• Everyone bar two members of our target market said that they would buy the single
• Everybody rated the video between 7 and 10.

What people thought worked:

• The reverse shots, such as the apple flying out of the basket, Lexi flying up onto the post box, the lipstick shots, the leather jacket and so on
• The walking shots
• The changes in speed
• The settings
• The colours, especially the coloured walls
• That it was exciting throughout

A lot of people also likened it to Pharcyde - The Drop, and Coldplay - The Scientist, which is great as these are videos from which we originally drew our inspiration.

Pharcyde - The Drop


Coldplay - The Scientist

People mentioned in their questionnaires that the lighting was a little wrong on the some of the coloured wall shots, which I would definitely agree with. Although we attempted to colour-correct these shot as best we could, there was no substitute for not having used the pag-lights on her face at the time. Also a few people mentioned that our actress looked a little nervous in some of the shots. Given the opportunity to film again, getting Liv to feel comfortable and relaxed in her role and lose her inhibitions is definitely something I would spend a little more time on

Feedback for the website and album cover:

I included this photo earlier, but this is a screen-grab of some of the feedback we received when we posted the video on Facebook. People have included comments like "it's amazing" and "it's so realistic", which we are all really pleased about! A friend also said that "it didn't look like a student website at all" which was a massive achievement. 

We also received similar positive feedback from the album cover, with people mentioning that they liked the way that Lexi was looking at the track-listing on the back cover, the colour schemes used, and the shadow imagery on the inside panels. 

I think the feedback was extremely beneficial. It was great to learn that we fulfilled our goal in reaching our target audience who gave predominately positive, complimentary feedback. It was an important lesson learnt that post-production cannot cover up important errors in planning such as not using the lighting on Lexi's face in the coloured wall shots, which I think was our most fundamental mistake. There is of course, lots of space for improvement, as there always is, but I am really proud of the music video we achieved and the way that the two ancillary products work to compliment it.

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

New technologies have been fundamental to our project from Planning, through to Post-production, in everything from the technology used to shoot our music video from to the software used to edit it. Although we have been getting to grips with cameras and editing software for years in media now there were several new developments in the technology we used this time round which really helped to take our project to more advanced levels.


Canon HV30:

The camera itself that we used this year was a Canon HV30, which records in HV. This was vital for our video as so much of it was in the visuals. We use so many vibrant colours and settings and one of our biggest aims was to really make those colours come to life. The HD camera added a far greater richness, depth and quality to our shots. 


Studio Lighting:

Some of the floor lighting we had access to

Some of the different coloured lighting effects we were able to experiment with

The shadow effect we were able to create using the floor lights

 Our school has just finished building "The Seward Studio" which was extremely beneficial to us when carrying out photo shoots. It meant we had access to lots of high-end, expensive lighting to create the exact colouring effects we wanted on our shoots. We used the large overhead lights to experiment with different lighting for the background of our shots, and were able to use the smaller floor lights (after learning the tricks of three-point-lighting) to make her "jump out" or to create different tones of warmth on her skin. The floor lighting was also fundamental in creating the long shadow shot that we use in the inside panels of our album cover.




Adobe Premiere Pro:

 Although we have all been using Premiere for years now, because of certain effects we wanted to achieve on our project, we started to learn (with help from our technician, Chris) about some of it's functions that we hadn't used before.

We learnt, most importantly how to reverse and speed up shots.This was done simply by right-clicking the clip and changing the speed percentage. The "Reverse Speed" tool was a check box you could select.

We also learnt how to use the colour correct tools, brightness and contrast, and other colouring effects to make the most out of the colour in our shots. Because of the vibrant colours we used, paticularly in the coloured wall shots, this skill was particularly useful to us. We had options such as the use of the "Change colour Tool" and the "Three-way Colour Corrector" and so on which all helped us to acheive different effects.

We used a lot more special effects this year than in previous years to try and keep it interesting. When the beat becomes more fragmented and a background chorus starts singing, for example, we wanted the image to break up to, so we were taught how to use the cross-dissolve tool to create this effect. 
 

  

 

We also learnt how to use split-screens which appeared on the beat to keep it varied and exciting. 

Adobe CS3 Photoshop:


In previous years, I have been using Jasc Paint Shop Pro to edit photos! I didn't really realise until teaching myself how to use Photoshop this year just how much more beneficial it is to making the most out of photos. We were able to air-brush Liv to perfection, change the colouring of shots, place the shadow of the bird on the inside right-hand panel of our album cover, and adjust the brightness and contrast, all with relative ease.


The Internet:


The internet was invaluable to us in every stage of the project.

Facebook meant we could publicize our screening event with ease and keep everyone posted with dates and times, as well as post links of our website and the video online.

YouTube allowed us to make sure that our video reached a wide audience in a short space of time, and could be linked to other websites such as Facebook, and our blogs.

Also our group blog, obviously, has been an easy way of keeping everyone up-to-date and in the know about what is going on and anything they might have missed. We were able to share things such as "to-do lists" to keep everyone on top of what had to get done and track our progress. 

Wix.com was naturally also one of the most important websites we used as it was the software we used to create our own website. It's a flash-based programme so it was incredibly easy to pick up, and far less complicated than a programme like Dreamweaver. It was easy to navigate with a simple drag-and-drop function for placement, and was much like customizing a word document! The adding of photos, live links, videos, and changing font sizes and colours were all extremely easy.

Online Website Feedback

We posted the website to Facebook and have received some really positive feedback, which we are all happy about! Above are some of the comments people left. In the last comment someone even linked the video "Pharcyde-The Drop", which means that our references have been noted!

Audience Screening

Our screening is today! Very excited and nervous. This is the questionnaire we are going to hand round:

Audience Screening Facebook Event

We have decided to publicize our audience screening, which will be on Monday 6th December, on Facebook. This way we can control who we invite, and let everyone know all of the event details. Facebook is also a common platform used for social-networking by our target market.