Studded Roses FINAL MUSIC VIDEO

Forms and conventions?

Forms and conventions are an important element used within the industry when producing media material such as music videos. One media form in which we found that we would need to include in the music video was the showing of all the band members to show the band and who was the group to present the band as they are new to the industry (as given on the brief).

Split screens seemed to be a key element in music videos that had the genre of R ‘n’ B/pop. This split screen effect allowed the audience to see all of the band members on their own as an individual on a separate screen. One of the artists already in the industry in which I researched due to her being involved in

R ‘n’ B/pop was ‘Beyonce’ a popular female artist; her music videos included split screens of her in different outfits (which I felt would work very well in a girl group music video. We developed the different shot ideas such as split screens, extreme close up of lips, long shots of all girls and a match on action shot; these shots we felt were very typical of a classic ‘pop’ genre music video.

Another theme in which seemed to be seen as a main convention of the

pop/ R ‘n’ B music genre was a colour scheme that linked to the genre. For example, pop genre videos seemed to involve bright, bold colours; whereas, R’n’B seem to base the music video convention theme on dark colours with an urban presentation such as black, grey and white. We felt that due to this we could perhaps combine the two which we did in the end with the red, black and white scheme into our video, linking to the ideology of the band. 

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

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

New media technologies were very helpful throughout the project; they helped through the research, the filming stage, the editing and the feedback. The research was found mainly on the internet on the websites Google and Youtube, especially when it came to trying to find examples of the chosen genre and the research for looking at the codes and conventions used in a music video by other music video directors, this information was then all documented on my blog laurasa2musicvideo.blogspot.com.

The filming was also used on new media technology such as a ‘Flip’ camera, allowing the filming to be done portably. This also allowed us to do a variety of different angled shots as the camera didn’t way us down and was easy to move around changing shots. Phones were also used throughout the filming of the music video, especially in the car park location due to the listening and playing of the song to film the lip syncing scenes.

The editing was then all developed on the Mac’s on the film making program, ‘Final Cut Pro’, this program allowed us to produce the music video once the video footage was uploaded. We were able to then add the music with the footage, were editing, cutting, changed and adding effects to the videos to create the final piece.

When having to evaluate the work and collecting feedback about what others, including our target audience thought about our final version of the music video, we felt that Facebook was the main site that would help us collect this information. We uploaded the video as a Quicktime video to youtube and then posted the link on each of your Facebook walls to see what people felt about the video. We also added the link to Twitter and sent it to one of the original band members of Misteeq who sung the ‘Scandalous’ song originally. She then retweeted this link saying she found it very impressive showing that we sent the link from the use of the internet, helping with the feedback process. 

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

When looking through the different products in which I had created such as the main product of the music video and the ancillary texts of the digipack and poster there were a variety of thoughts about the combination.

The music video, I felt was overall successful as a whole due to the codes and conventions used. The mise-en-scene I believe helped with this success as it made the video come across as being more professional. An example of this is the colour scheme, the black, red and white theme; which allowed the music video to have the slight effect of being more planned and organised as being consistent. The colours also had the connotations of being perhaps being rebellious and maybe the idea of danger, which we wanted to use as the narrative was about the girls kidnapping the boy at the beginning of the music video and then the crime wall at the end which showed them being arrested, generally representing the idea of them being ‘scandalous’ in the music video.

Another element I felt worked very well in the music video was the locations used, including the car park, the crime wall, the red wall and the street scene. These locations seemed to make the music video more professional, allowing more of a narrative to progress. However, one of the weaknesses of the video I felt personally was the understanding of the narrative to some as it wasn’t always easy for people to understanding what was happening in the video due to mainly the absence of the boy as the music video continues.

The theory of Goodwin was used throughout our music video as we planned around his key elements:

1.Relationship between lyrics and visuals

2. Genre characteristics

3. Relationship between music and visuals

4. Influence of record label and use of close ups

5. References to the notion of looking/voyeurism

6. Intertextual References.

The relationship between lyrics and visuals seemed to be a strong factor throughout as we planned that it would allow the video to progress more present one of the conventions in which pop/R ‘n’ B genre music does in other videos. An example of this is the continuous cut shots of different band members singing the lyrics by lip syncing. Another theory from Goodwin was the relationship between visual and music, the link of the music and the way in which the visual changed with the music itself made the video link up better. As a group, we decided from the beginning that it was a key element that we must include in the music video. We did this by mainly basing the changes of the shots and scenes with the change of the music, we also did this when the lyrics such as, ‘So, so, so scandalous’ was said, the split screen shots would appear at the time of the music change.

We also tried to include an intertextual reference to the video, we researched a variety of different products in which we felt the target audience would be interested in, in this case we felt that make up would be a very good intertextual reference. This was then researched and I  found that Rimmel had created a ‘scandalous’ mascara, we felt that this would be a very good reference for the music video. I  found the commercial and decided to try and find a key scene in which we could take from the commercial and then add to the music video in some way. When we thought of this we decided to create a scene with a crime measuring wall whcih was used in the commercial with the model wearing the mascara at the beginning; we also started the video with one of the band members putting on the mascara at the beginning of our own music video.

When it came to creating the digipack design for the coursework project, I wanted to link the music video with the design of the digipack. Due to this I decided to find an image in which I could use as a representation of the word ‘scandalous’, when doing this I felt that as a crime based scene was used, crime scene tape would work well as an image on the digipack itself as a connotation. I then started to think about the presentation of the band members as they wasn’t an established group, meaning all images of the band members had to be included. I decided to take four different images of the girls and add them along the tape of the crime scene. When I did this I used Photoshop to cut the images out individually and then edit with effects, this developed into making the images black and white as I wanted to keep the theme of black, red and white but in different outfits to show variety.

Naming the tracklist on the digipack was another element that needed to be added to the digipack that linked to the video. I wanted to base the song names on the theme of ‘scandalous’ linking them all to having a scandal theme with girls taking control.

The logo was a strong element to the development of the music video promotion to represent the music video and print based media. When producing the logo we wanted the typography to link to the band. This included edgy and straight typeface so that there was a connotation of the bands ideology; strong and in control. Then studs were added in the lettering to link to the name of the band as well as adding roses to the edges of some on the lettering.

Then, when it came to creating the promotional poster, I used the same image which I used for the front cover of the digipack. Keeping the theme of black, red and white, I made the images of the group members black and white again but then made the lips red, having a connotation of the girls being dangerous or even a sexual theme. The logo was then added and name of the album, including the release date; in this case Valentine’s Day as we felt it would link to the name of ‘Studded Roses’, as roses are commonly associated with Valentine’s Day itself. As it was a promotional poster for the digipack, I researched the different logos that needed to be added, I decided to add these onto the bottom of the poster as a base bar, which consisted of: copyright logo, DVD logo, HMV logo, CD rom logo and the website of the group. I found that both ancillary texts and the main product came out very similar as a whole and all linked to each other through different elements explained, allowing the combination of them all matching.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Throughout the process and development of making the music video, we had time periods in which allowed us to view our work to the class through its development, allowing us to improve the video as we went along. From the first class showing we learnt that the music video was a bit too slow with pace due to the beat and general content of the song, this made us edit the video and make the footage move on the timeline faster, allowing the clips quicker with the beat of the song (Goodwin’s theory).

When it came to the class viewing of the final version of the ‘Scandalous’ music video, the feedback in which we received was overall positive, this included the mise-en-scene, costume, concept, the performance and the variety of camera shots used. The things in which we were told could be improved on was the narrative with the boy as some didn’t understand where he went as he was only used once in the video, allowing us to add a new piece of footage of him in it so it could possibly be understood better. Another element in which people felt could be changed was the ending with the crime wall as people felt it was too long, due to this we cut down the ending approximately a minute so that the scene was shorter. Overall, I found the audience feedback very helpful as it allowed the group to see different people’s views of the video included different genders and ages so there was a mix of ideas that came when feedback was given. 

The Evaluation...

The Presentation to the class of the evaluation: