Evaluation Commentary

Peram's Evaluation

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

In our group there are many different type of personalities, and with that in mind we had to choose a song that all three of us would like as well as be comfortable to make a music video. We picked the song ‘Heartbreaker’ by the artist P!nk. We then had to do some basic research about the genre of the song and the artist in general. From looking at the artist background we could see that our song fell into the category of Pop Rock.

Initially as a group we did some research called the star analysis and from this I had to pick out certain conventions in order to analyse them well. Whilst looking I noticed that there were regular patterns in all of P!nk’s music videos, from the make up to the mise en scene. From just analysing other music videos by P!nk had made it so much easier for us to imagine what our music video would look like. As a group we decided that we needed to look at more music videos that had the same genre. We decided to look at the music video by Miley Cyrus ‘7 Things’ by looking at this music video we were astonished by the amount of simplicity in this video but even more so at how the visuals matched the lyrics. And we decided that we wanted to incorporate this idea into our music video.

As a group we had to look at more conventions that would be in a Pop rock genre; as we did more and more research we found out that in certain areas of the music video there would only be a few changes in costumes as well as the mise en scene would incorporate the music video as a whole (the mise en scene would complete the video). One of the major conventions of Pop Rock genre is that there is subtly to the scenes but the main focus would be on the artist singing/acting. We decided that we wanted to incorporate this into our music video; and we achieved this by having a natural location shot in the nature where the artist was the main focus rather than the surroundings.

The clothing in most Pop Rock music videos were either very bright coloured or natural looking. We decided to go for a bit of both as our main focus of producing a music video was that the lyrics would match the visuals. This was a major convention for Pop Rock music videos because the main focus of the music video would be behind the lyrics of the music video and we decided that as a group we would somehow want to portray as many emotions as possible because out song was about falling for the wrong person, and we believed that many people from our target audience could relate to this.

The make-up in many music videos that we looked at were either subtle on the face and heavy on the eyes or subtle on the face and heavy make up on the lips. We decided as a group that for our music video we would go heavy on the eyes and subtle make-up on the face as this would be easier to replicate the make-up if we needed to re-film the scenes as well as keeping up with the conventions of usual Pop Rock genre music videos.

The locations in Pop Rock music videos were either very much noticed by the audience or not at all, this meant that a majority of the music videos we looked at were dark and gloomy either in a house or a dark club. When looking at the conventions for our music video we decided to go with a very different concept the reason behind our choice was that because the song itself was very dark and gloomy that the location of bright and light would contrast making the audience wanting to see more. The lighting in our music video was very light but in some areas of the music video we decided to change the colour contrast so that the scenes would look more clear and sharper to the audience. This was not a typical Pop Rock convention as explained above we decided that for the target audience we were aiming at it would be better to have the lighting light; apart from the couple scenes where we decided that those scenes would be in black and white to show that it is a flashback. The flashbacks were one of the conventions for P!nk’s music videos and we decided to use this idea.

In many Pop Rock music videos there are not many scenes outdoors so it is very hard to tell what the weather is. As a group we decided to film some scenes outside but in windy conditions as it would add a little effect in our music video for the flashboard scenes. (It made the pieces of paper fly away easily).

How effective is the combination of your media product and your ancillary task?

When discussing our magazine and digipak we decided that we wanted to keep it simple as well as a signature look that kept with the theme of Pop Rock music videos and this meant that all our other tasks (ancillary tasks) had to follow the same concept. We decided to stay with the same theme as our music video which was that to have a wow factor to our magazine advert we wanted the theme to be black and white with only one part of the magazine and digipak were in the signature colour pink. This would make our magazine and digipak to stand out against all other genres.

The setting that we used for our digipak was very much down key in a neutral location where there were only trees as a background. The reason behind our choice of location was because that we wanted to person on the cover of the digipak and the magazine to be the centre of attention. The location we used for the digipak and magazine was the same location that we have in our music video. We decided that the main person that was on our cover would be wearing the same clothes that were in the music video as well as the same make up. The lighting in both the digipak and magazine were the same but this did not matter too much as the image would be in black and white.

When we were trying to compare both of our digipak and magazine advert we made sure that they were both similar so that the target audiences could tell that they were linked to our music video. The digipak had more information than the magazine as the magazine advert was sort of like a statement rather than selling the product. There were many different conventions of a digipak and a magazine advert and we had to incorporate them into our final ancillary tasks.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?




We showed our rough cut edited version for the first 14 seconds to some of our peers to get feedback on what we could improve and what they liked about it. We found that they really liked that our visuals match the music. We were told that the guitar scene was a bit too long and it lost the audience attention half way. They noticed the lip-syncing was slightly off too. To rectify these problems we shortened the guitar scenes and put in some other scenes to make it less dull, we also made some shots black and white to show that these were in the past and clearly showed they were flashbacks. We learnt to be more careful whilst putting in shots for the lip-syncing scenes.




After taking this feedback we then went on to finish the music video and showed it to more people. We got a lot of positive feedback such as they found it easy to understand the narrative and they could clearly see how the main lip syncer was heartbroken. The most positive feedback we got was that many people thought it looked like a pop-rock music video; we were very pleased with this as this was the style we were going for, so it shows we included enough conventions for it to be easy to see it was of the pop-rock genre. We got feedback on how we could have improved it such as some suggested we could have used more locations or ones that we more interesting. Again we were told the lip-syncing was off in some places but this was due to a problem with the QuickTime converter as on final cut the lip-syncing was fine.

Our feedback from our presentation told us that some of our shots we jumpy and in order to improve this we re-filmed a couple of the scenes. Our feedback told us that some of our zooming was a little jumpy and could be smoother and the duration of one or two shots needs to be shortened as they keep the audience waiting for too long, however we also gained positive feedback, such as, we used good angles and framing when using a variety of camera shots, the quick cuts of flashing lights worked well with our chosen genre, and we used ‘fun, bold’ and ‘eye-catching’ mise en scene which also came into connection with the genre of our music genre. From the mixed response of good and bad feedback, we were able to work upon the negatives and improve these aspects, as well as understand what the audience liked. Finding out what they liked was extremely helpful, we were able to repeat some of this, for example, the editing techniques, and ensure that these positive points stood out for the audience, resulting in a music video that enticed an audience and followed media conventions.

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

When beginning the research stage, we used the most common and obvious, but also the most helpful media technology, the internet. The internet enabled us to research media conventions, our music genre, various artists and much more at a very good speed, it was not only useful for its speed, but it also gave us more information than we needed, more than we would have received if we had of researched from books etc. Research is what some would say is the most crucial and important stage out of the entire production, without the research we would have minimal knowledge on the conventions we needed to follow, the stereotypical aspects of our music genre and information on other music video’s/artists.

After the research was completed we went ahead and began our filming, this involved another form of media technology, the video camera. We were already familiar with the video camera as we used the same camera when filming our AS coursework. The camera’s had a great picture and picked up on every detail when filming, along with the camera was the tripod; this prevented any unsteady filming and enabled us to turn the camera smoothly when following actions on screen. The camera contained a play and pause button so we were able to stop filming easily when changing location or bringing in new props etc., it was also easily connected to the apple macs when uploading the footage.

The editing stage was possibly where the provided media technology came in the most useful; we used an editing program named ‘Final Cut’. This particular program allowed us to add in shots where wanted, remove unwanted/unneeded shots, use ‘qwerky’ and eye-catching transitions and enhance colour schemes where necessary. The editing techniques that could have been used were endless, some working with our music video/genre better than others. We were consistently changing and adding upon editing that we had already completed and new footage that needed a fun, edgy spin to it.

Photoshop was yet another major media technology used within our A2 coursework. This was brought into action during our ancillary task; the production of our magazine advert and digipak. We used your standard every day digital camera to take the photos for the digipak and mag advert, we then uploaded these photos onto the apple macs and began editing. Like the film editing, the options we had were endless, we were able to change the background of our image, edit the brightness and contrast of our photo’s, add texts and symbols, characterize the images, change the colour schemes completely and so much more. We played around on this for a while, trying to figure out what worked best whilst fitting into our music genre which would also catch someone’s eye and stand out among other similar adverts. Without Photoshop we would have ended up with a very bland and simple digi-pak/magazine advert, this would not have been ideal, therefore having such media technologies, we were able to produce professional looking pieces for the ancillary task.

A final media technology that cannot be forgotten is blogger.com, this has been used to track all of our work and enables each member of the group to keep up with what is being researched, analysed, produced etc., by other members of the group. It is also how members of the public and the examiner can look at our individual and group work, as well as watch our final music video. The website offers many things, we are able to edit our page to our own liking, tag ourselves in posts so we can see who completed certain research etc., and also offers ease of use. Understanding how the web page works is very simple and quick.

As you can see, various pieces of media technology have been used right from the very beginning of the production of our music video, right up until finalizing the last aspects. Each one of the above, with exception of Photoshop will also be used when researching/filming/editing our evaluation.

Henley's Evaluation

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

Our music video uses several of the same conventions which are used in real pop rock media products. From looking at, and analysing professional music video’s including some of P!nk’s other videos, we chose specific conventions in which we wished to include within our music video. Our music video explores some of Goodwin’s theory as we linked our lyrics with the visuals in our video. Examples of this include “There’s a ring around my finger…” we had a clip of myself removing a ring from my finger, and “I pray to God you’re not a heartbreaker…” we had a clip of our main character Evalene placing both her hands together in front of her heart to portray a praying motion.
Genre characteristics also played a big part in our music video. The specific traits relating to our genre of pop-rock included Evalene’s bright, girly make-up, the use of the guitar and a mixture of bright and dimly lit surroundings. P!nk is portrayed as an independent feisty female and this can be seen in her previous music videos. We tried to create the same level of feistiness within our video by getting the main actress to show emotion whilst singing, and she did this quite well through facial expressions and hand gestures. The structure of our music video is fragmented as we show several clips of events that happened in the past, in our case, the ‘flashbacks’ which we purposely made black and white so that it was clear to the audience that these occurrences happened in the past.

These conventions include the make-up for the main character and also the styling and outfit choices. We chose to focus on the eye make-up specifically, and the main character Evalene wore hot pink eye shadow so that it would be eye-catching to the audience. From the very beginning of our ancillary task, we all had a clear idea of how we wanted the CD cover and magazine advert to look like. We all wanted to stick with a pink theme throughout our project as the artist who sang our chosen song is 'P!nk'. 

Another convention that is widely used for advertising purposes within the pop rock genre is photographs. We took several photographs of Evalene; the girl who lip sang for us in the music video, so that we could choose 3 to use for the front and back covers of the DigiPak and also the main image for the magazine advert. We managed to edit our images using PhotoShop and add our bright pink text onto the images. We also altered the font and developed the overall images by experimenting and applying different effects onto the text and also the photos.

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

I think the combination of both our music video and our ancillary texts are really effective as they compliment each other and our conventions are portrayed clearly throughout both. Our main theme of the colour pink is clearly displayed within the music video through Evalene's eye shadow and also the top she is wearing. We chose to focus on our theme of the colour pink as that is the stage name of the artist who sang the song in which we produced a music video for. From watching several of P!nk’s music videos, we all noticed that she always had an element of pink within the video, whether it be nail varnish, hair, clothes, shoes or backdrops. The soles of Evalene’s shoes were a light pink colour and we enhanced the colour on Photoshop and this can be seen on the back cover of our DigiPak. We felt this was an effective thing to do and it really stood out from the back cover. By clearly portraying the colour pink throughout our entire project I believe it gives the audience a clearer understanding that the artist we are producing for is ‘P!nk’.
The outfit we had Evalene wear portrayed a girly yet edgy side.

She wore dark jeans with a bright pink top, and a black and white coat over the top as it was quite cold the second time we filmed! When it came to producing our ancillary texts, we weren’t too sure which font to use as there were several possibilities. We wanted something bold and edgy to stand out, but it also had to be quite soft to reflect the femininity of the artist and the album. For the front of the digipak we chose a font which had a bubbly effect, and we made the lettering bright pink with a black outline, and then blurred the edges of the letters slightly to give it a softer feel. Once we had finished our ancillary texts we went back to the front cover and decided to change the font again as it looked quite childish and not very professional. In the end we chose a simple font and selected the ‘bold’ option to make it stand out from the background image. We used the colours black, pink and white for the fonts on our magazine advert and digipak.

We have used the same image throughout our ancillary texts; however we manipulated the photo in different ways to give each cover an interesting, eye catching look. For the album we chose to have the images on the front and back in black and white, with an element of pink; so in our case, pink eye shadow and the sole of the shoe to be pink. We also used bright pink wording to make the cover stand out. For the magazine advert we decided to use a photo in colour, although we still manipulated it a bit by adding an effect and using the sharpening tool to brighten and sharpen some areas of the image. I am really happy with our final album cover and magazine advert as I think they are very aesthetically pleasing and look professional.

3.   What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From all of the feedback we have received throughout our project, we have learnt a lot as a team. First of all we had some feedback from our class mates about our pitch presentation; our initial idea for our music video. All three of us had a clear idea of what we hoped our music video would look like when it was complete, so our pitch presentation was quite detailed from the beginning.

Our fellow classmates picked up on this in the feedback saying how it was clear we knew what we wanted to do and had thought about elements of the music video in depth. One of the main elements in which we had thought about in depth for our music video was the flashback scenes and flashboards with lyrics. After analysing the music video for ‘7 Things’ by Miley Cyrus we really liked the idea of having some scenes showing the lyrics to the song. We chose some of our favourite lines from the song ‘Heartbreaker’ including ‘I won’t be leaving here alive…’ and ‘What if I’m falling for a heartbreaker?’ as these lyrics stood out the most to us and we believe they send a strong message to the audience. We then wrote these lines onto A3 size pieces of cartridge card and added a love heart shape in the corner of the page. We all felt that the scenes we filmed of the flashboards looked really professional and the flashboards are personally my favourite element of the music video because it breaks the lip syncing scenes up and I feel it ties in really well with the pop-rock theme.

Next we had the feedback for our original rough cut. We were told that our camera work was quite wobbly so to improve this, when we filmed our real music video we ensured we used a tripod. Our class mates also felt that the introduction guitar clip was too long, so we broke it up a bit by placing a clip of our main character Evalene in between the guitar clip. We were given feedback for our music video, and were advised to re-film the lip syncing scenes, which we did the very next day. We were also told to include more camera shots from different angles which were something we ensured we filmed plenty of when re-filmed the lip syncing scenes. We also got a couple of our friends to watch our music video and give us some feedback as to what we could change to improve the overall video and a couple of them said that they would like to see more effects being used. After hearing this we all watched our video over, adding more effects to a few of the camera shots.

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

Throughout our entire music video project we used several media technologies. During the construction of our music video we used a Canon camera, tripod, digital camera and also a Blackberry smart phone. After completing our test shots using the camera and tripod we found it fairly easy to work the camera when it came to filming our scenes. When it came to editing our music video we used various programmes on the computer. We used Final Cut Pro to edit the scenes we had filmed and to produce our music video. We also used Final Cut to add the special effects such as black and white, and the fade in and fade out transitions.

We used QuickTime to covert our music video into a file that was compatible with YouTube. YouTube is another media technology which we used throughout our entire project for research, inspiration and to upload our music video to the internet for others to see. We also used Photoshop to manipulate our images and to create our effective album cover and magazine advert. It took a while to get used to Photoshop and to understand how to work the software as we hadn’t used it before and it got quite confusing at times, however we got there eventually and produced some good quality ancillary texts! We also used iTunes to upload our chosen song to Final Cut Pro. We have documented our entire project on Blogger. Everything we have researched, created and produced has gone onto our blog as a way of presenting our project.

During the stages of research we used the PC’s and the internet to find all of the information we needed such as typical conventions of a pop-rock music video, and also some information about the artist ‘P!nk’ to help us with the certain conventions we had in mind. Planning our music video was something in which we all found quite easy as the three of us had very similar ideas as to what we wanted to include within our music video. We drew a storyboard including detailed annotations to show what we specifically wished to include within our pop-rock video.

Jemma's Evaluation

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

Ÿ  I think our media product is typical to the forms and conventions of other Pop Rock videos. This is because it includes lip syncing of the main female role who shows emotion which is also shown in music videos of the same genre including Pink and Miley Cyrus. We took inspiration from both of the artists and their music videos. For example the direct address from Miley Cyrus’s video ‘7 Things’ and the flashbacks from various music videos, including Pink – Perfect. Another convention that we have followed that also appears in music videos is the idea of flashbacks showing past memories. We saw this flashback element appear in music videos such as Perfect by Pink. The flashbacks would show a previous happy relationship between a couple. We liked this concept as we could change the colouring of the shots in order to show they were in the past. We also thought this idea would perhaps tell the story of our song a little better as there would be visuals confirming that the happy times were in the past.

We also applied some of Goodwin’s points. This included linking lyrics with visuals. We did this throughout our music video. For example with the lyric ‘there’s a ring around my finger, but will you change your mind?’ we showed the shot of a female taking off a ring. Another lyrics and visuals we used was by having the flashboard with the lyrics on, whilst they were being sung. By linking the lyrics with the visuals, this allows the audience to connect with the song and lyrics. We also covered genre characteristics as many of the elements we used can also be seen in other typical Pop Rock videos. For example, the shots of the lead female singing can also be found in most of Pink’s videos. Also showing musical instruments in the video is another element that is common in Pop Rock videos including Pink, Miley Cyrus and Maroon 5. We also looked at demands on the label as Pink has a recurring theme of being the dominant female role. We tried to portray this by getting the female singer to show emotion whilst singing. Another of Goodwin’s points that we looked at was the structure of the music video. We decided to create a fragmented music video as we would tell a story of ‘heartbreak’ but in different sections and not in a linear order. We told the story by showing flashbacks of a couple in between the lip syncing and flashboards with the lyrics on. By using Goodwin’s points, we were able to clearly plan our music video and cover the criteria needed.

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

·    I think the combination of our main product and ancillary texts are effective as there is a consistent link between them. Certain elements are carried through the music video and ancillary texts. These features include the use of the prominent colour pink. We used this idea as the artists name is Pink as well as it being a good link between all of the tasks. In our music video the colour pink is shown on the lead singer’s top and eye shadow as well as on the nails of the girls holding the flashboard. On our DigiPak, this idea is shown by the image being in black and white and only the singer’s eye shadow and texts being in pink. This makes the writing stand out more and gives the image a more edgy look.

    Another element we have kept consistent throughout the tasks is the image of the main female singer. She appears in the music video lip syncing as well as on the DigiPak and magazine advert. We have also kept the idea of “heartbreak” a common theme throughout. This obviously appears in the music video as lyrics are sung about it. However, we have also incorporated this idea into the visuals of our music video by showing scenes such as teenage girls tearing flashboards with the lyrics on. We have shown the title “Heartbreaker” onto our DigiPak and magazine advert as well which keeps in with the theme. We decided to keep these themes consistent as it allows the audience to make a clear link between all three products, making it easier to see that they are all from the same artist.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Ÿ  We first received feedback on our initial music video idea presentation. For this task we pitched our initial ideas to the rest of the class. We received mainly positive feedback including that we had clear initial ideas, good audience review and a good idea of linking the lyrics with the visuals. This allowed us to gain constructive feedback on positive points and also how we could improve our ideas.

We also got some initial feedback from our first rough cut we produced. From this we gained information on what the audience liked, didn’t like and what we could improve on. Points that the audience liked included that we had good links between the music/lyrics and visuals. For example, the clip of the eye fitted in with the lyrics and the guitar playing went well with the music. However, the guitar was out of time with the music itself. People also commented that our camera work was steady and clear. Negative points about our initial rough cut included that the shot of the guitar being played was out of time with the music. Also, we needed to use a more diverse range of camera shots and angles. They also thought that the guitar scene went on for too long. We agreed with most of the negative points given to us and we took these on board. We tried to change these aspects of our music video but adding other clips in between the guitar scene as well as playing around with the guitar scenes to put them in time with the music. We also slowed down the blinking of the eye in order to make it not look as rushed as before. We incorporated the feedback we were given and carried on putting our music video together.

We also asked some of our friends to have a look at our final music video and asked for some feedback. This allowed us to get a clearer view on how the target audience portray our music video. Overall, the feedback was generally good. However, they all said that they would like to see more effects on the video to make it look more professional and of a higher quality. Therefore, we went back to Final Cut and added in more techniques such as editing the lighting on the guitar scenes and slowing down the blink of the eye.

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

Ÿ  We have used various media technologies including posting all of our research and planning work onto a blog. This enabled us to keep of our work and planning in one place, as well as sharing it with our class mates and teachers. The blog was a good tool in which we can put across the ideas and preparation for our music video coursework. During the research into our music video, we used basic technologies such as the internet in order to find images to analyse and research our chosen artist. We used YouTube to watch and analyse music videos of the same and different genres.

 We also used key equipment such as the camera and tripod to film our actually music video. The more high tech camera allowed us to be able to film shots that we had planned, in a better quality. By doing this, our overall music video would be of a higher standard. The tripod again helped us to film better shots as it held the camera in a secure position. We also used the Apple Macs and software called Final Cut. Final cut ensured we could produce a music video of a higher quality by giving us the tools to be able to cut and edit shots to produce a video we were happy with. The tools on Final Cut included cropping the shots we had filmed, editing to black and white and slow motion. These various tools helped us to make a music video to our chosen song and genre. We also used QuickTime to convert our music video from FinalCut onto a format that was compatible with YouTube.

In order to produce our ancillary tasks, we used PhotoShop. PhotoShop enabled us to create a DigiPak and magazine advert. We were able to edit the pictures we had taken whilst filming to suit our chosen genre and theme we were aiming to achieve. PhotoShop gave us the tools to be able to change the images into black and white, add text and depict a certain colour we wanted to stand out, while the rest of the image was in black and white. By using this software we could create and DigiPak and magazine advert that fitted in with our genre of music - Pop Rock.

Magazine Advert

This is our final magazine advert for our artist's album. We used the colour pink again as the main colour in order to continue the theme of pink we have chosen. We have chosen to have bold text to make the information stand out.

In order to produce our magazine advert, we firstly started off with the main background. We used the same image of our singer as the DigiPak cover. We decided to do this as we think having the same image would keep the DigiPak and magazine advert consistent. However, unlike our DigiPak cover, we chose to keep the image on the magazine advert in colour. We then played around with the effects of the image and decided that the chosen effect looked best. This was the brush strokes tool which makes the image look slightly cartoon like. This links back with our initial advert research as we found that Gwen Stefani, also in the Pop Rock genre, used a similar effect on the advert for her album 'Love. Angel. Music. Baby.' where the main image is slightly blurred and looks cartoon like.

In order to create the artist's name 'P!NK" we used the basic text tool and changed the font to Impact to keep the font consistent with our DigiPak. We then played around the colours of the text and found that having the text in pink would make the advert too over powering with the colour of pink. Therefore, we changed the text to white and added a ink outline by using the stroke tool. We also used the bevel and emboss tool in order to make the text stand out and appeared slightly 3D.

We decided to have the album title 'Heartbreaker' running down the right hand side. This allowed us to fill the gap down the side as it was just background on the main image. Again, we used bevel and emboss in order to make the text stand out. We also used the stroke tool again to create a pink outline on the black text.

We added the infomation at the bottom by using the basic text tool. We chose to use the colour pink for this writing as black or white text wouldn't stand out as much on the image as her coat is black and white. We decide to again have a black outline around the text to enhance the information. We changed the colour of the text "OUT NOW!" to white in order to help it stand out from the rest of the information. This is because this piece of infomation is more likely to catch people's eyes when they see the advert.

Finally, we incorporated our album cover we had created into the bottom right hand corner. This is because we found many artists do this on their magazine adverts and we thought it looked more professional. We wanted to include the album cover to link our product together and also give the audience more information on the product being advertised. We used the drop shadow tool on the image of our album cover to create darkness around the image to help it stand out more. Again, we used the bevel and emboss tool on the image to make it more prominant and stand out.

We think the overall product is eye catching and would be appealing to our target audience due to the colour scheme and the appearance of the advert. We also think that the advert is consistent with our music video and DigiPak due to themes such as the images used, the font and the colour pink.

Final DigiPak

Part 2 of digipak on photoshop

In this hour we decided to give photoshop another go and we were more successful this time as we had help from our media teacher. We wanted to try and make the image that we had black and white and we were successful up to a certain point as we wanted part of the image to remain the original colour. We achieved this by some help from our media teacher and when our media teacher had left us we had continued to make the picture black and white and saved the image we then decided we wanted to make the whole image black and white but before we could do that there was an unexpected virus on the computer shutting down all the previous work we had done.

Once we had uploaded the saved image on photoshop again we couldn't remember what tools we had use to make the image black and white and after a while we found what we were looking for but instead not the image turning black and white it began turning black and we had to undo the image a couple of times. By the end of this session we had still not figured out how to turn the rest of the image black and white and had decided that on the next lesson we would take notes from our media\ teacher on how to use photoshop and the tools.

Part 1 of digipak on photoshop

In this hour we decided to choose an image on one of our main actress for our magazine cover. We had already had an image of what we wanted the magazine cover to look like the problem was how we could put it down on photoshop.

We first decided to get ourselves reacquainted with photoshop as our first time on photoshop was a couple of weeks before and we had already forgotten the basics of photoshop. As a group we tried to figure out how to upload an image as a background and how we could get a layer added to the picture; we had finally managed this but unfortunately nothing would happen when we wanted to add or take out a specific part of the image. We then decided to start from afresh and try again this was probably the third time we were trying this and we finally uploaded an image and were able to cut out a certain piece of the image but unfortunately we were unable to add another image on top of the background image.

Intial Sketch Ideas For Magazine Ad

 For our ideas regarding the magazine ad we had decided that we wanted the image to be subtle but eye catching to our target audience. By doing this we decided to use one image which was easy as well as simple this was easy to photoshop and change the image.

We decided to put a picture of the main lip syncer as our magazine advert and we decided to put it in black and white. With this we had used the theme of p!nk through out of it.

Intial Sketch Ideas For Digi Pak

Our initial ideas for our digipak were very simple as we knew what we wanted and how we wanted it to come across to our target audience.

As a group we decided to go for a very subtle but eye-catching picture which portrayed emotion that could be related to from our target audience. Below is the image that we started to go on and from there we wanted to start developing it by adding small colour changes etc.

Feedback Of Final Music Video

As we had to re do our music video because there were some scenes were we had to re film because it did not look that good. We then got a few people to look at the music video and we came back with some positive and negative feedback.

Positive feedback
they were able to understand the concept
they liked the flashbacks
the flash boards were a great idea and in time with the music

Negative feedback
The lip synced needed more emotion to be portrayed
If you had more time there should be more camera angle and shots.

Timeline for Production

03/10/2011 - Started shot list
05/10/2011 - Completed shot list
10/10/2011 - Planned when we were going to film. Filmed test shots
11/10/2011 - Filmed the flashboard scenes for our music video
12/10/2011 - Cut test shots, uploaded flashboard shots to final cut
14/10/2011 - Filmed burning of the photo and lip syncing for our music video
17/10/2011 - Cut and edited the test shots, filmed the petals falling and uploaded the lip syncing scenes to the Mac

16/11/2011 - refilmed the lip sycning scenes

Re-editing of Lip Syncing

Once we had re-filmed all of the lip syncing scenes, we all sat down and started to re-edit our music video again. As we deleted each of the old lip syncing scenes from our completed music video, the remaining clips seemed to move to the right slightly causing our entire music video to be out of time with the audio. We spent a couple of hours editing the whole thing and trying to get it all back in time however this was proving quite difficult, so we decided to go back to our original complete music video and insert a few of the new lip syncing scenes where the old lip syncing scenes were. 


As we already knew, editing is a long process and we managed to finish editing our music video completely for the second time, within two hours.


From day one, we have all experienced some difficulty with an element of making a music video. Every time we had difficulty we managed to sort it out and correct our mistakes. We have all learnt a lot more about the process of producing and editing a music video and feel as though we have created our music video to the best of our ability. 

Re-filming of Lip Syncing

After watching our final video, we received some feedback. We weren't too happy with the predicted grade that we were given so we decided to re-film our main character Evalene lip syncing. As soon as we had all made the decision to re-film, we all sat down together and wrote a list specifying what it was we wanted to achieve whilst re-filming. We found that writing a list of what we specifically wanted to have within our music video made it a lot easier when it came to re-editing our video.

The next day we all went back to the location where we originally filmed the lip syncing scenes and we got Evalene to lip sync to the entire song 3 times from different angles. Using different camera angles will add variety to our music video. 

We all found it quite difficult the second time round, especially as the weather was different so we were worried that when it came to re-editing, it wouldn't make sense. First time around it was sunny and warm, and we re-filmed it was extremely windy and cold. In order to get a decent camera angle from above, Henley held the camera on the tripod whilst standing on top of a log. We found it hard to keep the camera steady due to strong winds...and standing on top of a log! 

We also got Evalene to climb into a tree and sit on a branch so that we could get a shot of her from below. This proved quite difficult too as we couldn't always see what she was singing. Luckily we managed to film everything we needed to within an hour. 

DigiPak Analysis Of Pop Rock Genre

I am going to analyse the DigiPak for Pink's  Pop Rock album 'Funhouse'. On the front of the DigiPak there is an image of Pink on a merry-go-round horse which fits in with the album name

'Funhouse'. The name of the album and artist is in smaller writing, diagonally in the center of the album cover. Also, in the corner of the cover, there's a sticker which says 'The new album from P!NK includes the #1 hit "So What" plus "Sober" and "I Don't Believe You"'. This gives the audience some information on what the album contains. The colours scheme on the front is mainly gold and red which also fits in with the theme of a funfair.

On the back of the album cover we can see another image of the artist Pink. The main piece of information on the back cover is the song titles that are included on the album. The different fonts of the song titles also have the same theme as the rest of the album which is the idea of a funhouse/funfair/circus. The colour scheme is more subtle than the front cover, showing different emotions as the front of the album is quite energetic where as the back of the album shows a more calmer side. This may imply that that there are different types of songs on the album, some fast and up tempo and some more slow and emotional.

The barcode is featured on the top left corner on the back cover. Information on the production of the album is also shown on the back of the album.

The idea of the funhouse is carried on throughout the album DigiPak. On the actual CD there's another image of Pink on a funfair horse with balloons which all keeps in theme with the album. Her styling also ties in with the rest of the album. Pink's outfit on the actual CD is quite childlike and bright which adds a fun element as well. On the opposite side (the back of the pull out booklet) we can see Pink dressed in a more formal outfit, showing a serious element. There's also images of clowns which again ties in the fun, circus idea.

Above are some images from the album booklet. The booklet includes lyrics of the songs and images of Pink. Again, the booklet also continues the theme of the fairground/circus. Most of the pages include an element of colour and all portray the idea of the Pop Rock genre of music.

Pop Rock Album DigiPak Analysis

Another part of our ancillary task is to analyse a CD of the same genre to the one we are currently studying and producing a music video for. As our chosen genre is Pop Rock, I am going to analyse the Pop Rock album entitled ‘Can’t Be Tamed’ by Miley Cyrus.

The name of the artist is clearly displayed across the centre of the album cover in large gold letters. The album title is written just below the artists name in the same gold letters however slightly smaller. The track listing is displayed on the back of the album in large bold white letters and takes up the majority of the space on the back cover.

Within the wording on the actual CD-ROM, it states that if you insert the CD disk into your hard drive, you can access bonus material from the album. Miley Cyrus’ official website is stated on the back of the CD case along with the record label that produced the album.

The credits, recording information, song producers and lyricists for each song can be found inside the information booklet that comes with the album. There are four images of Miley Cyrus throughout the accompanying booklet along with a page dedicated to credits, another for special thanks and several pages with the lyrics to each song printed on them.

The barcode is displayed on the back cover of the CD case and the CD logo is located on the spine of the case. The colour theme throughout the entire album of black, white, gold and purple reflects the genre of pop rock. The CD case is a basic case which opens up to reveal the booklet on the left hand side and the CD on the right hand side.

DigiPak Analysis Of Pop Rock Genre

This is quite a simple digipak, the inside of the digipak is mainly blacks and dark colours, one of the panels contains a photo of Britney which is quite simple and also inkeeps with the theme as she is wearing black. The left panel contains her initials where the right panel contains the initials for the album title. This is very simple unlike some of the other digipaks which contain lots of photos of the artist. The outside covers contradict the theme inside as the colours that are used as completley diffrent, they are very light. The front cover inkeeps with the gold writing theme and the album title and artist name are displayed in big letters on the front.

The front includes an image of Britney looking seductively at the camera which supports the male gaze theory and this could appeal to the male side of the audience. Females are drawn in by the image inside as although the outfit is quite revealing, which would once again support the male gaze theory, it also resembles a fashion image, something which you may find in a fashion magazine and this is what gets the female side of the audience.

Britneys main genre is pop and this itself would appeal to the younger audience, however, as the digipak is quite simplistic this could appeal to an older audience. It may also suggest that Britney wants to be taken more seriously as an artist, compared to previous albums and it may also suggest that she has matured. The main image takes up the full of the front panel, this is because Britney is an artist that people recognise so this would draw someone into buying it as it's clear who the artist is.

The track listing is in black which does not follow the theme of the gold writing, this may be so that it stands out from the other text.

Magazine Advert Analysis Of Pop Rock Genre

Above is Madonna's album cover which was released in September 2009. Madonna is pop/dance music artist and has had some big hits in the charts which many people enjoyed listening to. This particular advert for her album is enticing because she is using her old 80's look which might appeal to an older audience because of her style. The use of the colours are bright which are also attractive which make the audience look at the advert. Her eyeshadow is a bright blue which is appealing as it entice the audience more and with the use of her red lips is a seductive look but comes across as enticing because it is in the style of Marylin Monroe. The style of her is appealing because not many people would have this kind of style in this present day so it could make people buy it because she is producing in her style that she used to. This advert is advertising her 'Ultimate Hits Collection' which is more appealing because it will be all of her greatest hits in one album. The name of her album is 'Celebration' which might represent her re-releasing her old songs and trying to make this album big.

Magazine Advert Analysis Of Pop Rock Genre

This is a magazine advert for Gwen Stefani’s album ‘Love. Angel. Music. Baby.’ This artist and album comes under the same genre of music as our chosen song and music video - Pop Rock. The artist’s name features in big letters in the centre of the advert under a picture of her. Under her name is the album’s name ‘Love. Angel. Music. Baby.’ At the bottom of the poster it states that the album is “in stores now” which tells the audience that the album is currently available for purchase. The poster also includes information on featuring songs that include ‘What You Waiting For?’ and ‘Rich Girl’ featuring Eve. It’s hard to tell from the image of the advert whether it states what form of release the album is available in. At the very bottom of the advert we can see Gwen Stefani’s official website ‘www.gwenstefani.com’. This advertises her website which will allow fans to access more information on the artist. Above the website address is details on the production crew who worked on the album. This again gives more information on the album that is being advertised.

The main image we can see on the advert is a distorted photo of Gwen Stefani. The image is slightly blurred. This image instantly tells the audience that that advert is advertising her. Underneath her picture is her name and album title. This then explains what the advert is advertising. In the bottom left corner of the advertisement we can see an image of the album that is being advertised. We can see that the main image on the advert is similar to the image on the album cover. This keeps the theme the same. The colours of the advert seem to be quite luxurious and royal with the golds, reds and silvers. Gwen Stefani also appears to be posing on a thrown and with a crown in her hand. This again ties in with the royal theme. One of her songs that features on the advert is entitled ‘Rich Girl’ which again fits in with the idea of money, royalty and luxury. This theme also ties in with Gwen Stefani’s style represented in her songs, photos and music videos.