EVALUATION QUESTION FOUR

SCRIPT FOR EVALUATION FOUR

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

During the research stage of creating my products, media technologies played a vital role.

YouTube was the main media technology we used from beginning to end. We first used this during the research progress to find the song "Teenage Fantasy" and we carried on using it to research further into the contemporary R&B genre by watching similar music videos, as well as videos from other genres. This helped us know what conventions from this genre we wanted to follow and challenge. We also used YouTube to download the song so that we could start editing in iMovie.

I also used Spotify because it has a "similar artists" section on musicians' accounts. This allowed me to find other singers that are part of the same genre as Jorja Smith which gave me a wider variety of music videos to watch. As well as this, I looked through playlists that are made either by Spotify or other users to find similar songs and artists. Having a wider range of musicians to research also gave me more digipaks and magazine adverts to look at for my ancillary tasks.

Also, I used Google throughout my coursework to research into artists, music videos, genre conventions, what digipaks consists of, examples of magazine adverts, along with other information we needed to research. Google images was also useful when it came to looking at inspiration for colour palettes but for this I also used social media sites and other music videos mostly on YouTube but on Vimeo too.

When planning, blogger was used from the beginning to the end of the year as it was crucial for putting all of my thoughts together. This website allowed me to create blog posts explaining my inspiration, ideas, and plans. With an easy-to-use layout, it was very simple to organise everything I needed in the labels I want. I was also able to change the look of my blog so that it includes handy links on the side, which includes the school youtube channel (where I uploaded most videos). 

Another software we used to plan was Microsoft PowerPoint to create a pitch for our music video idea. This simple application allowed us to explain our ideas mostly through images. We then presented this pitch to our class to receive feedback which turned out to be extremely helpful.

Furthermore, since we were using someone outside of our group as an actor, we needed to make sure that we were organised with everything. We mostly used Microsoft Office Excel for this as it was easy to organise the timetables for shooting days, locations, what actors we'll need on what days, what costumes, and the props we will need on certain days. Since Excel is easy to share with other people, it meant that we could all be connected in the plans which allowed us to be more organised. In addition to this, we also used WhatsApp to create a group chat with the three of us who were working on the music video together, along with the actor. This meant that we could let each other know if we were going to be late, have to cancel, if we needed a spare SD card, or any other last-minute messages we might have had to send each other. We also messaged each other on WhatsApp to share inspiration and ideas throughout the year.

When it came to the construction of our products, we used different hardware as well as software. Originally, we wanted to film our portrait shots using a camera called "Super 8". This would have achieved the perfect look we wanted and other music videos that include this camera are Dodie - "You". However, Super 8's are extremely expensive and difficult to use so we had to find an alternative that was more realistic. After researching on Google, we then came across the app "Fyuse" which allowed us to create short videos that go back and forth, making a 3D feel to the portrait shots. Unfortunately, this app was downloaded on Julia and Lucy's phone because it's only available on iPhones which became an issue as I couldn't film any portrait shots if I wanted to whilst I was out on my own. Although it was possible to do this without me filming on my own, we could have got it done quicker if I was able to have it on my own phone too. The only other downside to using this app was that it decreased the quality of the videos. However, the rest of the music video was filmed on DSLRs cameras which meant that the high quality hugely contrasted to the low-quality shots of the portrait shots. Since there was a clear difference anyway, it didn't become a problem because it seems as though we purposely wanted it a lower quality which is an effect used in quite a few music videos, for example, Tigers Jaw: "June" (although this quality is a lot lower than our Fyuse shots)

The other hardware media technology we used are mine and Julia's DSLR cameras which were a Nikon D3300 and a Canon 60D. Using these cameras gave us the quality of video that we wanted and having two DSLRs also meant that we were able to capture a lot more footage throughout the day. Since Julia and I had our own cameras, it also meant that we could film whilst we were on our own. For example, I took a few filler shots of trains whilst I was in central London without the rest of the group. This allowed us to take advantage of the limited time we had, rather than sticking to the few days we could all film together.

Once we had footage for the music video, I started to edit it all using iMovie. We had the option of using this or Final Cut Pro and although to begin with, I wanted to use Final Cut, I ended up deciding that iMovie would be a better option. This is because I used iMovie for my AS film opening so I was already confident in using it. This meant that we wouldn't have as wide of a variety when it came to editing techniques because iMovie doesn't come with much but with the variety of cameras and software we were using, we didn't want to use too much "fancy" editing.

When it came to editing on iMovie, I used a range of editing techniques including cropping, split, rearranging shots, saturation,  and contrast. Another editing technique I used in the majority of the shots was stabilization because since we filmed mostly handheld rather than using a tripod, I had to fix the shots that were extremely unsteady. Finally, I downloaded the song from a YouTube to MP3 converter website to be able to insert the audio onto iMovie.

To create my ancillary tasks, I tried out a range of software before finding the ones that I felt comfortable working with. I first tried to edit the screenshot I took from the video on an app called "Afterlight" however since I have never used this before, I quickly went back to the app called "VSCO" which I use regularly for my media work as well as for editing other photos. After this, I took the screenshot to "Picsart". This was going to be where I would design my digipak and magazine advert. I've used this app a few times in the past but I've never needed to use it for anything important, or anything that I wanted to be extremely good quality. Once I finished editing my album cover on there, I sent it to my laptop to then find out that since it was done on my small phone screen, the quality was nowhere near what I wanted it to be. This app also adds a green tint to photos which wasn't the look I was going for. This meant that I had to find another software that would enable me to design my ancillary tasks. After a quick google, I found a website called "Fotor". Although I've never used or heard of it before, it was extremely easy to design exactly what I wanted. It also had enough fonts available for me to use that meant that I didn't have to use the apps I downloaded on my phone (which included "Phonto", "Font Studio", and "AppForType"). Overall, Fotor was extremely enjoyable and is definitely a media technology I will be using in the near future.

To receive feedback to help with the progress of creating my ancillary tasks, I first used a website called "surveymonkey.com" which let me create surveys that I could easily share with whoever I wanted, to receive as much audience feedback as possible.

When it came to creating the evaluations, I used different media technologies for each question.

Since I don't have iMovie at home, I downloaded an application on my HP laptop called "Animotica - Video Editor". This allowed me to put voiceovers over videos and pictures which helped me create evaluation questions one.

For my second evaluation, I used a website called "Powtoons" which although takes a while, I think it's worth it. The problem I came across when using this, is that I didn't realise before that the free trial means I can only have a video of 5 minutes maximum. Since my voiceover was roughly 8 minutes, I knew that I couldn't cut it down to 5. To fix this, I realised that I had to do it in two parts but the only way to export the videos was to upload it to youtube so I then had to use a youtube to MP4 website again and edit the two together.

For my third evaluation, I used a website called "Prezi" which is similar to powerpoint but it's more complicated and looks a lot better.

Finally, for this evaluation which is the fourth, I'm filming it on my Nikon D3300 which is the same camera I used to film the music video.

In conclusion, I used a wide range of media technologies through every step of my A2 coursework. I went back to old technologies that I am familiar and comfortable with, such as iMovie and VSCO, as well as trying out new technologies that I now love, such as Fotor.

SCRIPT FOR EVALUATION ONE

This (as well as the other scripts for my evaluations) are just roughly what I'm planning on saying but I might change it slightly when it comes to recording myself.

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

After choosing what song I would be making my music video for, the first thing I researched was the genres it fell into. To my surprise, "Teenage Fantasy" - Jorja Smith can be categorised as contemporary R&B, alternative R&B, dancehall, and pop music. This meant that I had a lot of options when it came to the conventions I wanted to research. However, I decided to stick mostly to the contemporary R&B genre as this was the style of music videos I enjoyed most. I then looked at different music videos from other artists from this genre. To find similar artists, I first looked at a few I already knew which includes Frank Ocean, Sabrina Claudio and Mura Masa. However, I then realised I don't listen to a lot of R&B so I looked at the "related artists" section on Spotify which helped my find other artists including Shy Girls and Willow. After knowing what the music videos typically consist of, I have deliberately chosen to use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of real media products from this genre.

One of the ways in which I used conventions is through the colours of the music videos. I noticed that in these professional music videos from the same genre, there tends to be a large amount of highly saturated shots including the primary colours yellow, red, and blue. I specifically made sure that we were filming in locations with bright colours and told Lucy and Julia, who were the main characters throughout the narrative, to wear bright colours. However, I chose to contrast this slightly with some monochrome colours throughout too. Although bright colours are often used in R&B videos, it hugely contrasts with the colours of the original music video of Teenage Fantasy as it is all in black and white.

Another convention I noticed is that a lot of R&B videos are based on performance. For example, Oliver Baxxter - "So Slow", and Sabrina Claudio - "Unravel Me". I wanted to challenge this convention by having a video that's heavily concentrated on the narrative. However, I decided to develop it slightly by having the last shot be performance. During this shot, Lucy is also breaking the fourth wall which leads to her having more engagement with the audience even more. To create a narrative for our music video, we took most of our inspiration from the lyrics. After researching narrative videos, I found out that this is what videos tend to do from the indie music genre. For example Amber Run - "I Found". This research that I did out of my genre helped me expand my ideas and challenge the forms and conventions of real R&B media products meaning that I could combine the conventions from R&B videos as well as other genres.

A huge part of my music videos were the portrait shots I chose to include scattered throughout the video. This is often used in R&B videos as well as Indie videos. I did this so that the narrative can seem more "relatable" for the audience For example, Declan Mckenna - "The Kids Don't Want To Go Home", and Mura Masa - "What If I Go?"

Furthermore, after receiving class feedback, I found out that I had to include the song title and artist name. Originally, I didn't want to do this as I thought that not a lot of music videos did. However, it was part of the specification so I included it anyway and I thought I'd research and find some other music videos that also include it. I found that "So Slow" by Oliver Baxxter includes it at the beginning, as well as the original music video for teenage fantasy.

DIGIPAK (CD): PLAN

To make it easier when I'm designing the CD, I made a rough plan explaining my ideas on paper. However, this was before I recieved feedback on my magazine advert which said that blue looked better. Since I want to keep my digipak, magazine advert, and music video consistent, I will be using blue for that CD (and the rest of the digipak) instead of red. As stated previously, the hexadecimal number for the shade of blue I will be using is #5986BD. I have kept a note of this to make sure that there is a clear theme throughout all of my final products.

In addition to using the same colour, I will also still be using the same fonts ("Cavier Dreams" and "Rock Salt") to keep the theme going throughout ever aspect of my products.

DIGIPAK: RESEARCH

I decided to research different digipaks to get inspiration for my own and hopefully help me make mine look as professional and as realistic as possible. Here are some of my favourites:

DIGIPAK (CREDITS): RESEARCH

For my digipak, I of course wanted to make it as realistic as possible. To do this, I chose to inclulde credits to the people who worked on the album. This would include the producers, recorders, etc. which would all go inside of the digipak. I also wanted to include a small paragraph about the rights to the record label which usually goes on the back.

Here are a few examples that I found and took a picture of:

This all showed me that there are a lot of different things that I could include in this section of my digipak, but overall it has the same message. Some are also a lot shorter than others (for example, the last image shown from the album "Old Bones" - Broadside"). After reading them all as well as others that I didnt include images of, I created the following for my own digipak. I also looked at a bruno marks album since he has R&B music and my artist's music is also R&B. I wanted mine to stick to R&B genre conventions but I didn't notice anything different from his album and the ones from other artists.

This is on the back of the outside, where I'm giving credits to the record label and mentioning copyrights:

This will be the inside left (next to the CD), where I credit the people who helped create the album:

MAGAZINE ADVERT: SURVEY RESULTS

What I liked most about using survey monkey, is that it automatically compiles all of the responses and organises them to make it easier and quicker to analyse. It also lets you chose what type of graph you would like to view the answers as and I chose a pie chart for most as I feel like that's the easiest to analyse.

The answers from my survey are as shown below.

MAGAZINE ADVERT: SURVEY QUESTIONS

When sending the link to people, I'm planning on sending it along with these two versions of my magazine adverts:

This meant the the questions I was writing were going to be based around those two designs, and how to combine the positives of both to create one final product. I thought it would be best to only include closed questions because this meant it would be easier for the respondents to answer and it would be more efficient to compare results. However, I thought that it would be useful to have a last question available which was open ended where people can include any other thoughts they had.

To make sure I received as many responses as possible, I made all of the questions compulsory to answer apart from the last one. This meant that the respondents weren't able to skip any questions. This is why all (but the last) questions have a * at the start.

The question I included are as shown below:

THIS IS MY SURVEY

MAGAZINE ADVERT: RESEARCH

To make my magazine advert look as realistic and professional as possible, I have decided to research other magazine adverts to take inspiration from. After looking at a variety of magazine adverts, I came to the realisation that they all have common conventions. These similarities include:

• Date of release
• Artist name and album title
• Different ways of being able to access the album
• Artist's website or social medias
• Record label logo
• A single from the album
• A link to the album (same colour scheme, album cover, fonts, etc)

However, although they all have similarities, there are still a lot of differences between them and certain reasons as to why I like them more than others.

What I like most about this album poster is that the release date is a huge focus. It's in a different colour to stand out, and it's in a larger font size than the rest. However, it is still in the same font to match the album and keep a consistent theme. I also like how the album cover is in the centre quite large, to cause attention and so that the audience know what the advert is for. Other than the cover, there isn't much going on in the background of the rest of the poster. I think I'm going to take huge inspiration from this advert when it comes to the bottom half of the poster: a plain back ground to make the text stand out, and a larger font for the release date.

This has a plain background as it's just black and this makes the white writing stand out more than if it was over another photo. The use of the album cover to take up most of the screen is also very effective as it makes it more noticeable. The use of the album cover and the same font throughout the advert also adds to make it more recognisable and memorable for when the potential audience are in a shop and see it on the shelf, or see it online. The record label logos are also placed small in the bottom corner. I think I'm going to be heavily influenced from this advert when creating my own as I really like how it has a minimalist style, yet still includes all the information it needs to

DIGIPAK (COVER): RESEARCH

To design an album cover, I took a look at other album covers within the same genre as well as other genres to make it look as realistic as possible. Here are a few examples that I'm going to take inspiration from:

What I really like out of two of these is the thick white border around the photograph and I definitely think that this is something I will use with a screenshot from my music video.

I also noticed that it is very common to have consistency in fonts for the album title and artist name which makes it look very professional. However, there are a lot of exceptions and this includes that last image above which is the album cover for Bea Miller - "Chapter One: Blue". I have decided to go against the common convention of having only one font as I think it adds more character to an album cover so I will be using two different fonts - one for the artist name, and one for the album.

POSSIBLE RECORD LABEL

"Epic Records is an American major record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment; a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. Epic was founded predominantly as a jazz and classical music label in 1953. It later expanded its scope to include a more diverse range of musical genres, including pop, R&B, rock and hip hop. The label has released albums by popular artists including Tammy Wynette, George Michael, Lamb of God, Cheap Trick, Meat Loaf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ted Nugent, Shakira, Sly & the Family Stone, Celine Dion, ABBA, Anastacia, Boston, Dave Clark Five, Gloria Estefan, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and Michael Jackson."

I chose this record label to put on my digipak and magazine cover because it includes a variety of artists and some include ones of the same genre as Jorja Smith which is R&B. For example, Fifth Harmony and Camila Cabello both come under the "R&B" genre. This means that realistically, it is likely for Jorja Smith's record label to be Epic which makes my digipak look more realistic.

CLASS FEEDBACK

Here is the feedback my class gave for our music video draft.

TRACK LIST AND ARTIST NAME

We researched different albums within the neo soul genre and took a look at the artist names as well as tracklists. After gathering the information we needed, we came to the realisation that most artists in this genre tend to stick to their full real names which meant that it would be best for us not to come up with a band name. In addition to this, we noticed that most of the tracklists consisted of one and two-word song titles.

This is the tracklist we came up with:

1. Elevated
2. What Comes Next?
3. Dragonfruit
4. Holiday Romance
5. Wrapped Up
6. Dark Souls
7. Teenage Fantasy
8. Tree of Heaven
9. Blue Hysteria
10. Old Youth
11. Together

PITCH POWERPOINT

FINAL DECISION

After a lot of discussion, we have decided as a group that it will be best for us to make our music video for Teenage Fantasy - Jorja Smith. This is because we like the conventions that come with R&B and soul music videos more than we like those of the indie genre so we will enjoy directing and editing the video more.

The idea for the Night Bus video is quite similar when it comes to the general "vibe" because of the transport idea and how we want to edit the shots to make it look as though we used a vintage camera. Despite this, we think that our idea for Teenage Fantasy will get us higher marks.

OH WONDER - HEAVY

Oh Wonder are an indie pop, London-based duo which consists of Josephine Vander Gucht and Anothony West and are currently signed to Caroline Records. Their DIY debut self titled album was released on September 4th, 2015 gaining them much more success than expected as they originally wrote the music with intentions of solely staying as the writers, not the performers. This album was written to be sold to other artists however they then decided to release it themselves. Their second album, "Ultralife" was released the 14th of July, 2017 and gained them even more international success.

This video by Oh Wonder is quite a stereotypical video for a pop / indie music video as it just features the musicians having fun. However I chose this specific video as I found it interesting how it was directed. Throughout the video the editing used is editing to the beat which shows there being a relationship between the music and the visuals. However, this was done in quite a unique way by using a lot of stop motion. In addition to this, the colour palette consisting of bright and vibrant colours gives it a mix of indie and pop vibes.

DECLAN MCKENNA - HUMONGOUS

Declan McKenna is an 18 year old English indie singer songwriter signed to Columbia Records and initially obtained success through winning the Glastonbury Festival's Emerging Talent Competition in 2015. After releasing his EP "Liar" in 2016, he recently released his debut album titled "What Do You Think About The Car?"

This music video for "Humongous" is extremely abstract and has a common retro style and iconography for indie videos. The extremely strong retro vibes are given off throughout the settings, props, and outfits used which makes the video feel very indie.

The video features a large amount of different scenes which don't seem to be related to each other but all have a common theme of having a lot of vibrant colors and having things out of proportion. This shows that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as one of the lyrics in the chorus is "I'm big, humongous, enormous and small" and the video shows a variety of different things that are larger or smaller than they should be.

Although the video features various different things going on, Declan McKenna, the artist, is shown in quite a few different shots. The use of multiple close up shots of the Declan creates visual style to sell the artist. 

Furthermore, there's also some notion of looking at screens within screens. The first shot of Declan McKenna surrounded by pink mountains is then shown on a phone screen. The camera then moves to show a man sat around a table holding a phone in each hand and in front of a laptop. This shot then zooms out to what looks like a screen on a mirror. This also uses inter-textual references as at first it shows the music video itself within the same music video which commonly happens in humorous videos, which this is.

AMBER RUN - HAZE

Amber Run are an indie band based in Nottingham, UK, and have released 5 EPs and 2 albums. The band consists of Joe Keogh, Will Jones, Tom Sperring and Henry Wyeth and are signed to RCA Records.

"Haze" is a song by an indie band called Amber Run. This music video is an abstract video which is seen quite a lot within indie videos. There's also slightly a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as one of the lyrics are "my friends have all left me" and it shows a man isolated. In addition to this, there's also multiple close up shots of the artists as the entire video consists of different abstract shots of the band members.

CONVENTIONS OF INDIE MUSIC VIDEOS

LIVE PERFORMANCE

It's very common for indie artists, especially indie rock, to have live performances within their music videos. This is to create a "star image" to promote the artists using their faces  to sell their music. This video of "Amsterdam" by Nothing But Thieves includes a live performance in-between a narrative.

NARRATIVE

Although narratives are quite common with most genres, it is usually an important aspect towards indie videos. The narrative of indie videos are often included in-between the performance. This video is only narrative and it tells a story of two people through the use of barbie dolls instead of real people. This puts a twist on most videos that include narrative and makes it more memorable and unique.

MISE-EN-SCENE

Throughout most indie videos, the mise-en-scene tends plays a vital role. It is used to give a "retro" look and vibe. During the music video for "Robbers" by The 1975, this is done through the sets that are used, their own appearance (especially outfits), props, and the color palette.

SOUND

Diagetic sound is used quite a lot in indie videos. This can add to the narrative of a video, or can be a part of a performance as videos sometimes include the sound of an audience singing along.
For example, the music video for "Piece by Piece" by The Hunna starts off with diagetic sound of the crowd screaming.

WHAT IS "GENRE"?

Genre is described as a category of either art, music, or literature.

This is what Wikipedia explains music genre as:

A variety of different theorists describe genre in their own way and have their own thoughts surrounding the idea of "genre". For example, David Duff explains it as "a recurring type or category of text, as defined by structural and thematic criteria" Another theorist, called Barry Grant says that "all genres have sub-genres, which means they are divided into a more specific group for that particularly song. This allows the audience to easily recognize the song specifically by their characteristics which are easily recognizable." In addition to this, Steve Neale states that "genres are not systems, but rather a process of systemisation."