Media A2

For the advanced portfolio, I was told to create and present a media product. I chose to do the music video product. This required me to create the video, a CD cover and also a poster. In a set time we had to shoot and edit the video, whilst also updating blogs to keep track of the work. I had the option to work in a group but I chose to this work individually because doing the work outside of college would be more difficult if I were to rely on someone else. The project required me to include skills which I had not yet developed. For example, the use of editing and shooting for the music video was a more recent skill development, particularly the editing as I have never used the programme before.

The brief which I had chosen was the one for the music video which stated: a Promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options: a cover for its release on DVD, a magazine advertisement for the DVD and also a website homepage for the brand. I chose to do the magazine advertisement and the album cover. I began by thinking of different songs which I could have used for the video. My initial idea was to shoot the video at a party and use the song by Black Eyed Peas – I gotta feeling. This would have worked well as I had many opportunities to film this. This would obviously have targeted a younger generation of around 16-23 year olds. As I began planning and researching the band etc, I realised it was not what I would be able to do because some of the things I wished to include were too difficult to achieve. I then changed the song to Damien Rice – Cannonball which meant my video would also have to be changed. I then began researching the singer and some of his original videos, which appear to be for different and alternate to standard music videos. I then analysed the lyrics and decided on a ballet scene in which a girl is dreaming of being a dancer. This video would appeal to more general or older audiences, around 18-30. Looking at different audiences when deciding on my video I discovered that the music of this artist is very popular amongst all ages, therefore the range of age is rather wide.

In terms of my production, I feel the finished product has followed many typical conventions which would generally be used in a music video. For example, many music videos often involve a story of some kind, mine has a simple story which is easy to follow which is often the case in music video’s. For example in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, there is a story about being chased by dead people and ending where the female thinks it’s a dream. I had to make sure my video had this particular convention because, in many cases, it’s difficult to create a music video without some sort of story. The video also includes a few different characters which again is a typical convention. Characters play a major part. In some cases it is a character which is trying to show something or just play a separate part. In other cases it is the artist shown on the video, often miming along with the song playing over the video. In my video I have not used the artist miming over the top, but instead I have chosen to use characters without the artist. The camera which I used to film my video was a camera of my own, because I felt it was too time consuming to wait for a college camera. When I had filmed I was told the camera resolution and quality was not as good as it could be if a college camera had been used. I knew I did not have time to start over so I had to use what I already had.
In my opinion, my video appeals to my audience rather well. The idea that the girl is dreaming of being a dancer could maybe relate to other people within the audience. It sends a clear message to the audience of what it is about. The audience are right for this sort of video and I feel it achieves this by giving out the message which suggests if you want it you can go for it.

For my ancillary texts, I believe that I have combined them in such a way that they are all connected together. They are effective because I have used conventions such as the same colour schemes throughout. Also I have used the same fonts and ideas which are portrayed in my video throughout the ancillary texts. I think the fact that my colours are not very specific through my video, because they are in large environments where the colour combinations cannot be controlled. I researched different music video conventions and what would be included. The ideas I had gone for was the mellow and slightly dark appeal because the video is representing a longing for the idea of being a dancer. My video suggests that the girl will not achieve this therefore the mood of it is quite a depressing one. This means that, to combine the video with the ancillary texts, they had to have similar colours, so I used dark reds and blacks to create my album cover and poster. The costumes which I have used don’t particularly reflect the genre despite the dancer wearing a leotard. I also used the idea of the colours of the leotard, which was dark red and black, to further develop my ancillary texts. The general costume of my other character was mainly how the actress had wanted to dress because I had wanted this particular character to be as realistic as a college student as possible. I did not really use that many props within my video because the video was set within college therefore a lot of things were already in place for me. For example, the theatre which I had used already had everything in place, the lighting which was used was how I liked it to be, and there was no need for any extra props other than my character doing the dance which was required. The idea that there was no props was what I wanted because it made the video simple and that’s the idea which I was going for. During the other parts of filming where we see the girl walking around the college, again I did not involve many props because it would have been unnecessary. The only props which were needed were the table and chair when we see the girl asleep. The idea for the video was to convey a simple lifestyle of a student who wanted more out of the life she had.
The only two characters which I had used were the dancer and the college student. Originally I was going to involve another student to speak to the college student and join her walking around, but generally I wanted it to have the idea that the college student was lonely and possibly a student with no friends. This emphasises the idea that she is in her own world. The lonely feeling also emphasises the genre of the video which comes across as slightly down and depressing whilst it could also be considered as a happy genre because of the idea of the dreamer.

Audience feedback is very important to this project because it shows an honest opinion to what people think. It also shows a non biased opinion rather than my own which is essential.

The audience feedback which I have been given has shown quite a lot in helping me to create my product to a good standard. The initial questions which I had used were designed to help me choose the right genre and audience portrayed through my video. This proved positive in helping me decide and compare my own ideas with what other people had said. This showed me that other peoples opinions are extremely important within my work because they can assist to changing and helping rather than relying on my own opinion.

I have learned many new skills whilst at college using the facilities offered to me over the past 2 years of work. When I started my AS year at college I began using the blogger system. At first I struggled with this programme because I had never used it before and it was obviously a new skill which I needed to develop. This was essential for my work because it is an easy way to store work and also keep track of things. It became much more important during the second year when it was necessary to upload my video etc. This is why it was so important that I had learned all the necessary components to control the programme. It is also useful that I could store my questionnaire on my blog because then the audience could easily access it which made it much easier.
There were many challenges in terms of using software. For example, I was never familiar with the ‘Photoshop’ programme. I found it extremely difficult to use even in my first year and often found myself asking for help in using it off teachers and other students. This meant that the posters and other things for my project were more difficult because I needed to use this programme but often needed assistance which was quite time consuming.
Another programme which proved a challenge was the college editing software ‘Adobe Premier Pro’. I struggled to use this because again it was new to me and it took a while to get used to. When I first uploaded my video it proved to be difficult because the format of my own camera which I used was not the right one for the software. Therefore I needed to change the format of the video. This again required help and again was quite time consuming. For the photograph I had used for the album cover, I did the editing at home with the programme ‘Picasa’. I had the option to use Photoshop but decided against it because I found it much easier to use this programme which I was very familiar with because I have used it for years. When I brought the photograph to college I transferred it from the memory stick onto the computer and added other things on top of the photograph to create my album cover. Other than these the technologies and programmes I was dealing were not a problem whatsoever, because some of the time I was using my own facilities from home, including the camera.

The first and probably most important thing that I would do in improving my work would be to issue my time keeping much better. I often found myself running out of time and struggling to keep up. So this would be essential if I were to re-do this project. Another important change would be that I would use one of the college cameras to do the project as it would probably show a much better quality video. The camera I used was good but not quite good enough so show essential quality. The reason I did not use a college camera was because by the time I had come around to filming there were no cameras available, again an issue of my own time keeping. Another thing I would improve would be the lighting which was used for the dance scenes. Initially I wanted to use a darker look for the dancer and possibly a spotlighted look for the dancer herself, but with the camera quality I had it was not possible, once again the time keeping was a big part of this problem.

Another potential change I would make would be to take a lot more time to consider the song I chose to use. During the process I had a few ideas but only two were initially put into the blog because they were seriously considered and partly used. I think if I had spent more time deciding, I could have come up with better connections for my song to my video. This links to the idea that more research could have been done. I could have researched songs more in depth but again did not get the opportunity due to time. It was a struggle to fit the song to the video because they do not quite match and the relevance of the song to the video is hard to see.