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

My music video is a performance based video with elements of narrative throughout showing a couple in love. My video is seen very much through Laura Mulveys theory of the male gaze this is her theory when a female is seen as a Madonna who is seen as pure and innocent or a Whore who is seen as seductive. In my music video the costume in which my artist is would suggest she is very much a ‘Whore’ with a short black coat on revealing her legs in order to attract the male audience to her music. In the other scene when she is with the male she is dressed very differently but still acting flirty with the male and he is seen chasing her around and kissing the female. Furthermore the mis-en-scene would also suggest she very much fits in with the ‘whore’ persona, performing under bridges and standing on the side of the road carelessly which could be seen as trying to seek attention which is very much a ‘whore’ characteristic. Also the costume and the shots used are very similar to the ones used in Alesha Dixon’s music video for; To love again where both artists are seen in short black coats which give a classy look but also revealing the females legs and both in black heels with their hair down and fairly messy look as they are outside windy weather which could suggest they are looking for something.

Furthermore my music video very much demonstrates Goodwins ideas on gene characteristics of a music video with performance elements throughout with artist performing the song outside which strongly links between the visuals and the lyrics. Also Goodwins idea of demands from the record label where there would be lots of close ups of the artist to develop her fan base and make her known as an artist. My music video also links very strongly to Goodwins ideas that there is frequent reference to the notion of looking which in my music video would be very much the voyeuristic treatment of the female body, kissing and flirting with a male, as seen in many music videos where the lyrics relate to songs about love as seen below.

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

Throughout the different stages of my production I used many different media technologies. One of the main ones being the blog in which upload all of our work on too and gain feedback. Also throughout the planning and research I used YouTube to look at videos of a similar genre. To shoot my music video I used a Sony DV video camera which I found very easy to use as I had previous experience in past projects such as a prelim task when we had to use specific shot as well as showing the 180 degrees rule, also means I’m very comfortable with operating these, knowing the limits of the cameras makes the filming process much easier. The software I used to edit my music video was imovie the software had many advantages with extensive video and sound effects. Through gaining a good understanding of these technologies it has developed and improved my planning skills as I know the range of technology and editing equipment available to me on imovie means I can research different sound/video effects as well as transitions so I am able to see what effects will work best in my production and future productions to create gene characteristics of the genre I am trying to create.Furthermore the knowledge which I gained of the technology has improved my analysis of media texts as I can see the transitions, video and sound effects used and be able to refer these to gene characteristics of certain genres and then I am able to apply these characteristics to my planning and research therefore improving my final production.Digital video camera: To film my video which had many advantages including playback and long battery life which is useful as the filming process took a long time.
Blogger: To present my planning, research, video and evaluation

Imovie: To upload and edit my music video

Wordle: To process my lyrics in to a visual

Digital camera: To take photos for my CD coverPaint application to cut screen shots for evaluation.

Googlemail: To contact artist

mac: To up load and edit my music video

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

There is a clear link between my main product (my music video) and the ancillary texts I produced which was a CD cover and magazine advertisement. For each of them there is a clear focus on the solo artist of the close up shots used in my video to introduce my artist to the audience and make her face memorable and therefore hopefully achieving the same with her music throughout the video she is always the centre image of every shot making her the centre of attention and the shots used in the magazine shot are the same from the video creating a clear link in between therefore will look in to purchasing both.Also the close up of the female will again attract males to purchasing her music as they are attracted to her by her looks and features and therefore hopefully be attracted to her music. The album is called ‘Becky Tilley’ again another advertising tool to make the artist memorable. The magazine advert is a photograph from the video shoot with a mid shot of the artist stood up against the brick wall used throughout the music video with same italic font used on the album artwork and the same image and costume from the music video this means the audience will be able to establish a link in between all of them and therefore get to know the artist and the music.

What have you learned from audience feedback?

When I had finished editing my music video, I decided to show a small audience of my friends and students in order to be able receive some feedback, I had discussions with them and got each of them to answer a few questions on the video the first one was discussing whether there was a clear link between the music and the visuals in the video all of them agreed and said yes there were with the main one being the performance of the song seen throughout the video. We also discussed if the audience were to watch the video without any sound would they be able to guess the genre this question was more spilt with half of them saying the genre wasn’t clear just from the visuals, however the other half disagreed and said the genre was quite clear along with meaning of the song which was all about love and protecting your loved one this would be clear from shots like this below of the male and female kissing cuddling and playful flirting. This is obviously very positive feedback for me as it means I have been successful in representing the artist and her music and in general I gained positive feedback from my friends and family with many of them saying they enjoyed the music video. To gain more feedback I have recently uploaded my music video on to YouTube but I am yet to gain any comments it also allows you to rate videos on YouTube, also i will post the link of the music video on to my facebook account enable more people being able access the video. Furthermore in the future my artist will upload the video on to their myspace profile in order to gain further feedback from members of the artists fan base.

Digipack- CD cover

The Design for the front cover of my CD is very simple with one mid shot image of the artist copied four times and twisted around creating a mirrored image from the middle this is for the mian reason that the Becky is a up and coming solo artist so this cover is all about her. Furthermore the cover links in with one of the songs on the album called four worlds. The Font I choose to was a curly italic font which gives the album a sophisdicated feel this font is continued on the back cover with a grey background with a tracklisting and some producing and wrting credits. The magazine advert I produced was from a photograph from the video shoots as seen below.

Music video

Storyboards