Final music video

Above is our final music video.

Screenshots from website

http://mollymayrobinson.wixsite.com/avamusic - Here is the link for the my website, if it doesn't open then you may have to copy it into the browser.

Final digipak

This is the final digipak which we created. I think it looks really effective and is good how we used ideas which we had in the past and placed them in this one. We added the bottom left picture which had the use of synergy with the book being placed in it which is also shown in the music video. We also added lines all around the picture on the top left, rather than just the first few lines. I think the use of yellow, black and white looks so good and interesting and we have definitely made a lot of improvements since the last attempt of the digipak which we have created. I think the use of pattern really stands out and looks really fun, therefore showing the fun side of Ava which we show in her music video and her other products.

Question one

Digipaks are a style of CD or DVD packaging; they will usually be folded in a book kind of style. They are used to make the CDs stand out and appeal to the audience who they are hoping to appeal to. They were most popular in the 2000s, but however they are still around today and are important for the musician that they get their digipak correct. The front and back of the digipak should be used as the main promotion of the CD because this is the area which the customer can see without even having to open up the CD. The inside of the Digipak could have more information such as the song names or some information about the artist. The theme of the digipak should all fit together, as well as fitting along with the other products which the artists have. The imagery should be images which represent the artist, as well as the theme of the album inside. There is usually a trademark sign of the artist on the front to make it clear what the album is about. As well as this the theme in colour will usually run across the whole digipak, for example in our digipak we used the colour yellow throughout, and also used the fun posing, laughing pictures to link it all together. They should be eye caching and be illustrated in ways which relate to the artist.

For example, when looking at this Rihanna digipak I can see that the conventions of a music video were followed throughout. She has used synergy throughout her digipak, especially by the use of colours, for example she has used a red/pink in her hair in the pictures, which is continued throughout, as well as the red in roses in the background of some of her shots. Red roses are commonly given to someone when they are trying to show love to someone, this could mean that the album is going to be linked with love, as it is symbolised in the pictures. Most artists make sure that the photos and the colours which are used are clearly linked with what they want to represent themselves as, as well as what the music inside the album may be about. In our case, we needed to show a young fun side, and I feel as though yellow can be a young colour, especially for children, it is also a bright, vibrant primary colour which pops and stands out. We therefore followed the conventions of a digipak here.

Websites have been important products within artist’s careers throughout the years and they are still very important now in creating a successful musician. They need to have a different and interesting website which may stand out and impress the audience. It is very easy now days to create a website which may look like that of those which are currently out, because there are so many which have been made. It is important to share information with the reader which is current (regularly updated) and also will appeal to the audience which the artist has. For example, if Rihanna was to create a website then she would want to appeal to a completely different audience then say if Oasis created a website. Rihanna would be appealing to more the younger, female audience in most cases and Oasis would probably be looking more towards the middle-aged category, so it is important the website information is written and displayed in the correct way.

We looked at Ellie Goulding’s website for inspiration for our own website, we felt as though she has a very simple and eye catching website which would appeal to her audience. She has used a lot of the same colour which is a turquoise blue, and tends to keep the amount of information and depth to a minimum to fit in with her audience of young women. She has used synergy throughout her photos on her gallery, by her posing photos, which a lot of the time she has her hair across her face and is wearing not a lot of clothing. She also continues with the bright colours throughout her website, creating synergy, most commonly using pastel type colours, such as purples, pinks and blues.

Question two

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

Question three

Our music video was aimed at all the female teenagers ranging from 13 to 17 years old. We also showed our music video to an older age group and even though they weren’t our target audience they enjoyed watching the music video. This is a positive thing as it means we can appeal to a mass audience if we want too. We found the range we aimed at was a ‘pop princess’ audience and they also enjoyed listening and being a fan of similar artists. Below is a presentation showing examples of our primary and secondary audience:

 

First Draft

We made the first draft of our music video and presented it to our fellow class mates and other students on the media course at the end of November to the start of December. This allowed us to gain valuable feedback. We got our notes on feedback through asking them to fill out a series of questions about the framing, editing and camera work of our music video. 

From the feedback, it showed that people liked how the image behind the artist matched the song which is upbeat and could clearly see the image we are trying to portray of a fun, innocent seventeen-year-old girl which is good as that is what we wanted. Another positive thing which the audience picked out was that it fitted the genre of pop, this was a very important factor as it meant we were well on our way to creating a successful music video that is under the genre of music which we are aiming to create. They also said there a clear evidence of synergy throughout the video, website and digi-pak.

However, people said that the different shots were too long forcing them too become uninterested so needed to be cut shorter. They also said that the outside scenes colours were too dark and this contrasted too highly with the man made lighting which was indoors. They also disliked the baking scene as it had bad lip syncing because it was out of time.

We took this feedback into account when we started to refilm and edit our final music video and we made the following changes to the music video: we changed the speed of the shots to make the footage faster and we changed the contrast and brightness of the clips to make the colours stand out more rather than be faded.

Feedback after final music video

 

Audience Research feedback

By looking at this feedback I was able to understand the general views and ideas about our music video. Most people who we asked agreed that Ava had been shown as an up and coming artist, and they felt as though the way we had portrayed her, through our music video and other products. We had mixed opinions on what the favourite part of the music video was, and people were quick to come up with other ideas. Thought that it could be improved by having less people in a shot at once in some of the areas. Lollie said we could have played around with the contrast, because there is extreme in the jumps from the brightness in some of the shots. They thought we had a good connection between the colour, especially with the good use of yellow through the video. It is also good that Ben noticed the use off cross media synergy. All of the people who did the feedback said they thought the video was pop, which was correct, and was good to hear. They also said that the gene does match the products, because of the colours, coming together and becoming a whole project. I think the feedback which we received was really helpful and interesting to hear. They really liked the website and thought that it was easy to get around, as well as liking how it looked.

From this feedback we learnt that we had clearly shown a unique style which was eye-catching enough and suitable for an upcoming artist. Another factor what was pointed out to us was that they all had different favourite parts which showed how the whole video was up to a certain standard and not just pin-pointed scenes. We also learnt from the headshot interview that we needed to spend more time on the editing side to ensure the contrast in brightness is not too extreme while contrasting and noticeable. Another thing which could have been improved if we redid our music video was to have less people in the music to ensure our upcoming artist stands out.

















I made sure that we got the target audience to look at our video. So we used Mollys sister and her friends to give their opinion about the video. They seemed to really enjoy our music video and like the other things which I created such as the website and digipak. They said that they thought it suited the audience and they would definitely watch it again. They also said they could tell that the genre was pop. I a really glad that I asked this age (13) to watch this video because it allowed me to see that the correct Audience liked it.

From this feedback we learnt that from an untrained media eye they thought the music was upbeat and fitted the genre, which was good to hear. From their feedback we learnt that if we redid our music video to use less people as there was too many different people in it which confused them. 

This our focus group, this was a really good thing for us to do because it allowed us to talk face to face with an audience about what they liked about our music video and what they didn't like so much. The feedback which I received was really good and I was really impressed with what everyone thought. They said that our music video was much better than what they had seen from the previous drafts, and they were really impressed by the cross media synergy which we managed to create in our music video, from the yellow colours. They said to improve that we could add some more brightness into some of the darker areas to fit with the rest of the video. They also said that we also could have had a continuity of the same friends rather than changing.

We learnt from the focus group that everyone could see a clear representation of synergy of yellow and fun. We learnt on how to improve our music video by spending more time on editing and to ensure the same faces of friends throughout. 

Digipak feedback

Question four

Plan for evaluation