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

Question 1 from bethagar22

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

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

First, I gathered a group of people to analyse my rough cut:



From this, I analysed the feedback and noted down how I should improve the video.

What people found to be most successful was the transition and camera techniques used throughout the music video.

However, according to this, my music video needed; lighting adjustments in the bedroom scene, the opening sequence, the amount of transitions and the setting for the performance.

Unfortunately, I was unable to re-shoot some of the footage, due to time constraints, however, after examining the responses, I was able to edit the lighting in the bedroom scene and make the footage lighter. Also, after re-examining the rough cut, I was able to make the ghosting transitions neater and more comprehensible (made it look as though the singer was imagining the story more clearly).

After this was done, I posted my final edit onto Facebook and collected the feedback via comments.

According to the final feedback, the improvements were successful.

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

Audience Research - Music Video Review

Final Music Video (the pain is over!!!!!!!)

Advert

Digipak

Rough Cut Music Video

Day 2 - Editing

This was when the more complicated effects have been put into place.

 

During the editing, I decided to use the 'ghosting' effect to give the impression that the singer and main characters are shifting into thoughts and memories.

Day 1 - Editing

The first day of editing involved getting the footage in chronological order. Only slight edits were made on this day (dissolves and fades) to illustrate the passing of time or to portray the transition between the narrative and the musical performance.

Day 2 - Filming

The image I wanted to create with the music performance was a rehearsal. The singer is supposed to be viewed as though she is practicing for a show. To illustrate this, empty chairs are set up to portray that a show is to progress the following night.

The stage is simplistic, and the backstage is shown throughout the performance to give a sense of 'behind-the-scenes' as the singer narrates the story.

A dolly was mainly used to film this aspect, to give a greater sense of an invisible audience watching her (i.e. the audience outside of the video).

Day 1 - Filming

Day one mainly consisted of filming the narrative of the music video.

The filming took place over three different settings, meaning there was little time to film in the daylight.

Therefore, we decided that the best course of action was to film the outside areas first where it would be harder to manipulate the enviroment.

By the time we got to the indoor settings, it was already dark.

Using a lamp and an impromptu shade, we were able to create an early morning effect in the room (like light filtering in through closed curtains).

Digipak Practice (Unfinished)

Digipak Research

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. It means the cd comes in a cardboard flip-out case rather than a standard plastic hinged case.

Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak (DVDigipak) is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets.

What is included in a Digipak?

•       Photographs / Pictures – usually at least one will be of the artist(s) and another might be of a scene that reflects the mood / genre of the record.

•       Track List including song writing credits.

•       One box with a Disk impression (perhaps a circle over an innocuous background that shows where the disc will go or alternatively the design on the actual disc).

•       A Band/Artist information section (names, instruments, additional musicians, Copyright and year of release etc.).

•       Barcode and QR and a Logo for the record company.

•       Possibly reference to other albums by the same artist(s).

•       Sometimes Digipaks include: Membership postcard/flier and or a Free image/poster

Audience Research

Model of the Media

Michael Jackson (Unfinished)

Early Pop Videos with Jackson 5.
“Rockin Robin” 1971

Basic video – promoting song

Limited sophistication

Lip synching

“Rock with You” 1979

Him singing

Interest is costuming and the use of light in the video

“Billy Jean” 1982

·         First interesting Pop Video that tells a story and does more than just Lip Synching.

 "Beat it" 1983

Tells a story.

Elaborate choreographing at end sequence.

“Thriller”  1983

•       The music video is considered the most famous music video of all time, at least by the Library of Congress, which added it to its National Film Registry in 2009, the first music video in their registry.

The video was a cultural milestone introducing:

•        elaborate choreography

•        costumes and dialogue

•        the concept of the long-form music video, where a mini-movie was made for a song, then edited down for the short version.

•       The long version of "Thriller" runs nearly 14 minutes, but had remarkable longevity, easily racking up over 100 million views when it showed up on YouTube. MTV usually ran the short version, which ran a little under five minutes but still contained about a minute of non-song content in a storyline that omits most of the movie the couple is watching at the beginning.

•       The video cost about $500,000 to make.

•       Jackson's record company had no intention of paying for it, since the album was on the downswing and they had already financed videos for two of its songs.

•       According to John Landis (Director), Jackson really wanted to turn into a monster, so he offered to pay for the clip himself. Landis took on the project because he saw it as a way to revive the short film genre, which he loved.

•       Jackson didn't have to pay for the video out of pocket because they made deals with Showtime and MTV to cover the costs. Showtime got to air a one hour special with the "making of" documentary and the 14-minute film before it was broadcast anywhere else.

•       When MTV heard about this, their executive Bob Pittman decided that losing a Michael Jackson video to Showtime was unacceptable, and paid $250,000 for the exclusive broadcast rights once Showtime's window ended. MTV was founded on the principle of not paying for videos, so Pittman got around this by paying for the documentary, even though the money was really used to pay for the film.

•       The video won for Best Performance Video, Best Choreography, and Viewers Choice at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984.

•       With its famous graveyard dance, the video started the trend of group dance scenes in Pop videos.

•       The video owes a debt to Alice Cooper, who in 1975 created a movie based on the stage show for his "Welcome to My Noghtmare" tour. Cooper's production was based on an entire album, but it also used a horror theme and was narrated by Vincent Price.

•       Most homes had Video Cassette Recorders in 1983 and sales of videos were big business.

•       You could buy a VHS or beta copy of Michael Jackson's Thriller, which included the full video and also "The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller," a behind the scenes documentary.

•        This tape became the bestselling music video at the time, and was later certified by Guinness World Records as the top selling music video of all time, moving 9 million units.
The timing helped, as the video was released a few weeks before Christmas.

“Bad” 1987

•       Following “Thriller” he was the biggest pop star in the world.

•       His videos made the news.

•       The video of “Bad” was a major event. Shown for the first time on BBC.

•       People wanted to see his new image and the dancing.

“Black or White” 1991

•       The pop video was very expensive and inventive.

•       Used to try and resurrect his career (allegations of being ‘strange’)

•       Problems with his image – white skin.

•       Serious message.

·         The end sequence referenced Peter Gabriel’s ground-breaking video “Sledgehammer”.

“Earth Song” 1995

•       A serious message.

•       Jackson portrayed as a ‘Christlike’ figure?