Final cut!

Final Digipak

Final Magazine Advert

Evaluation - Video Commentary - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

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

Radio transcript

Presenter: Hello! I'm Josh Turner and welcome to the latest edition of 'Media Madness'! This week I are joined with an up and coming new director, Sophie Osborne, who will be talking to us all about how to make your own pieces of work effective and giving us some useful tips. Sophie, your most recent piece of work has been your music video for Eliza Doolittle - Pack up. I've also heard on the grapevine that you created all the marketing pieces for the project such as the magazine adverts and the whole digipak. Can you tell us how you made the combinaton of all these components effective?

Sophie: Well Josh, I believe that the digipak, magazine advertisement and the video itself for 'Pack up' all went together to create a good advertising campaign for the song. I produced them so they all followed the same style which was bright, colourful and mostly hand-drawn. I felt that these aspects would show the audience that they were all part of the same 'family' and make it easier for people to relate them to each other. This is often needed in todays music industry in order to help make singles 'sellable'.

Presenter: Great, so are there any particular factors that you used in the pieces to ensure they were effective?

Sophie: Of course. One particular factor that I wanted to keep similar throughout all parts was the mise en scene. I wanted to use bright contrasting colours such as purples and yellows as they really stood out against each other and this made it more eye catching. There are also connotations for using purple as the main colour on the front cover, as this colour is very royal and also is associated with nobility and spirituality. This is extremely relevant to the 'Pack up' narrative as in some ways the character is noble, and also spirituality can be represented in the fantasy that she is having about becoming self confident.

Presenter: I see yes, purple has always been my favourite colour.

Sophie: (laughs) Mine too! I suppose you could say the key theme throughout the combination of pieces was the idea of a fantasy world that the girl was dreaming about. In this fantasy she feels more self confident and generally better about herself, which is something I think a lot of young girls out there can relate to! I tried to replicate this idea within the digipak and the magazine advert. I used hand drawn art so that it looked and felt like the girl may have been drawing these herself in a 'doodle' like way.

Radio transcript cont.

Presenter: Excellent. I'm sure all the listeners out there are also dying to hear whether there were any risks you took? And whether these risks were effective or not?

Sophie: One thing that I personally didn't want to use in the production of my work was the use of screen shots, and where possible I didn't want to use any photography either. I thought that this would tie in well with the 'fantasy' theme, as photography would look too real, whereas a hand drawn picture looks like it has come straight out of someones imagination.

Presenter: Very understandable. But didn't you use photography in your magazine advert?

Sophie: This was one area that I thought it would work by using photography. You will notice that I did use other medias mixed with the photography to create an even more contrasting feel between 'real' and 'fantasy'. I wanted to make the image seem as though the character was in a daydream yet we can see what was going on in her head where all these random thoughts were flying around. Although some feedback I heard said they thought the piece was too busy; I think this is more realistic as people don't just have a simple thought in their head, they have lot's of random ones flying around.

Presenter: Okay. So, you've mentioned that you kept the theme of a fantasy world running through all the pieces. Would you be able to explain to the listeners some ways that you done this effectively?

Sophie: No problem. Even though I didn't take screen shots of the actual video to use for the digipak or magazine advert, I still tried to incorporate key themes from it such as trees, suns, flowers, grass etc. I feel that this made sections like the digipak especially more relatable to the song, which would then improve chances of it selling. If people can recognise that the front cover of the digipak relates to the video, then they are more likely to think "Ah I love that song!!" and purchase it. The fantasy world that she was dreaming of was also fun and bubbly; like the artist herself. This shows the audience what kind of personality, and what kind of music that artist may be heading to create in the future.

Presenter: I've got to say that one of my favourite aspects of the video has to be the different costumes and style that you gave the artist. Fancy giving us a quick tip on the fashion?

Sophie: There's really no specific style that I used over and over again. I did try and keep the whole image quite 'urban' as I felt that this is becoming bigger in music videos and audiences can relate to it, rather than if she was driving around in some flashy, designer car which realistically nobody can afford. The fashion used made made a complimentary contrast to the bright, bubbly setting around her and shows yet another side to her personality as an artist. The fashion can also be used as a way to draw audiences in. If someone is fashionable, young girls are more likely to watch what's on screen to get the latest fashion tips etc. I know I used to be one of those girls!

Presenter: There's some really good points there Sophie. I'm afraid that's all we have time for today though, you'll have to come back for another interview when you're next project is done?

Sophie: Definitely! It's a date.

Presenter: Lucky me! (laughs) Ok, you've been great Sophie but now it's time to get back to the music. Would you like to introduce the song for us?

Sophie: Sure! Here's Eliza Doolittle - Pack up, but be sure to go and check out the video too!!.....

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

Throughout the making of my music video, I was constantly comparing it to the conventions that are already exisiting in the music industry. An average 'pop' video would usually follow many of the trends that I included in my video, such as; bright primary colours - greens, reds, yellows, blues, teamed with high key lighting, choreographed routines and shots of the performer. I stuck to most of these conventions when making my pop music video as I didn't want to break the boundries too much which would then make it unrecognisable as a music video.

Todorovss theory suggests that there does not just have to be a beginning, middle and end to piece of narrative, but it can undergo other transformations throughout. To try and break some conventions of videos with my work. I included this theory. Instead of just having a linear narrative I incorporated other techniques such as flashbacks of her 'before and after' being confident. I also jumped back and forth between locations to make the piece more complex to watch. My piece did not have a strong narrative as the aim of my video was to produce a visually stimulating set of scenes that was bubbly and fun. I don't personally think that my video needed a strong storyline as a lot of pop videos follow the form of having an abstract, random video that has no meaning and allows the viewer to interpret it how they want. From audience feedback it was clear the the audience need something to follow even if this means they make up a narrative themselves. With the narrative of my piece I tried to go against normal conventions of a music video that are just linear as my piece is more about the audience interpretting it how they want in a way that makes them feel better and more confident about themselves.

Also, with the narrative of my piece I included another common convention of music videos; the withdrawal of footage. I used lots of various locations throughout my video but only introduced them gradually, flicking to different locations as different sections of the song progressed. By penultimate chorus of the song the editing was much faster paced which brought a climax to piece and then as the video ended, the editing became much slower which brought the piece to a close nicely. The shots of the sky and the subway are flowing and slow which shows that the piece is relaxing and drawing to a close. This is a usual convention of a music video as the song itself often follows a storyline with a climax, and the video therefore imitates this narrative.

After analysing other music videos in my planning and research section of my product I an see that my video includes a lot of aspects that follow the normal conventions of a music video. I followed inspiration from existing products such as Natasha Bedingfield - These Words, where they have also used parts of stop motion and the same mise en scene that I included in my video. This is something that Eliza Doolittle uses in her other videos so it made sense for me to follow this theme through into my own work.

Although I strongly stuck to the conventions in some ways, in others I chose to challenge these forms. In my music video it is solely the main character and no-one else. In some of my feedback this was picked up on and I recieved comments that said it would have been more interesting with more characters but I do not think that this lowers the standard of my work in particular. I think just having the artist in the video is often a good way of introducing a new artist as it allows the audience to get a feel for her personality and if they give a good performance, which I think Cesca did, then this can be equally as endeering as if there were more characters interacting with each other.

Another convention that I decided to use for my piece was the miming of the lyrics by the 'artist'. This is something that I thought would make the piece more intersting and personal to the audience as it made it seem as though Cesca was directly speaking to the viewer. As there wasn't a strong narrative to my piece then the majority of the video was based around the performance that Cesca gave. I feel that this was achieved well and was believable, especially in the grafifitt which added to the visual aesthetics of the video.

Finally, the last way I followed the conventions was the characters costume in the video. This was typical for a music video as she wore laidback and up to date clothes that were in fashion currently. This meant that my audience could relate to the artist more when they saw her in the video and magazine advert.