Bravado Final

Digipak Final

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Magazine Final

Evalutation Final

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My product uses conventions of real media products. In my music video I use a lot of shots that feature my actress, this comes from Dyer's theory of star image where the star of the video is shown the most to show that they are the centre of attention as well as showing off their talents, which in my video, is singing.I also challenge these conventions by not using a narative in my video, few professional music videos feature a narrative in their video so challenging this in my video would make the video stand out from the rest. 
In my video I had my actress dress similar to Lorde which is kind of an indie style look to her featuring articles of clothing such as button up shirts and chokers which a lot of people wear currently therefore this would attract that type of audience which is teenage girls around 16-18 years old who would usually listen to Indie pop music such as Lorde and Lana Del Rey therefore targeting this audience was necessary during the production of my video.

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

I used Lorde's song 'Bravado' for my final product, since I used Lorde for this I looked at a lot of artists advertisements/digipaks who are in a similar genre to Lorde (indie/electro pop) as inspiration. A lot of these artists use very simple advertisements for their products. When designing my digipak, one of the digipaks I looked at was Lorde's 'Pure Heronine' album, I used a similar font to what she used on her album. I think that this is affective because a lot of Indie artists seem to use the simplistic look to their digipak/advertisements therefore I am following conventions.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

From my feedback I've learned that I should include a variety of shots in my video of my actress and possibly add some insert shots into the video to give it more variety so that people will continue to watch the video. Some good points was that people who watched my video said that I had synced it up well throughout the entire video which is a positive point about the video.

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

I used new media technologies in my construction, research, planning and evaluation stage by using the internet for example to research different artists and looking at their work to get some inspiration for my own project, this included looked at artists from various genres for example I looked at people such as Lorde and Lana Del Rey as well as looking at rock artists such as We Are The In Crowd and Tonight Alive. I also used 

Behind The Scenes photos from the video

Digipak Draw up

Lorde - Bravado First Draft

Planning of Magazine advert

Mind Map of Ideas

Here I mind mapped all of the ideas that I had while planning what I wanted to feature in my music video. While doing this I was listening to the song on repeat so that I could listen to the lyrics as well as the beat of the music so that I could get inspiration from it that way. I started off by doing subcategories for location, costume, shots and a meaning for the song that could also give me ideas for how I wanted my video to look like and how it would be interpreted by my target audience.

Recce shots

 This shot is from a field that I initially wanted to use from some of my shots however when actually going to the site I realised that, although not obvious from the picture it was not suitable to use for my video.








This was a shot from an area that I have also considered for one of my shots that will be set outdoors. This area seems adequate however because of the amount of folliage that is scattered around the area it may be difficult to have good lighting for this area.

 This is how I will be having my studio shots be done, I have transfered my living room into a studio esq setting, as seen I have placed a black sheet up against a wall with two sets of lights pointing towards it. This location is where I will be shooting majority of my shots.

Prop Preperation

I do not  have a lot of props that would be used in the video however I have decided to use a step ladder as a chair. I already own this so I have no issue finding one to use for the video. I decided to use this because instead of using a regular chair having a step ladder would add to the edgy-ness that I want to channel in the video so having this would be ideal.

Risk Assessment

Risk	Risk Level	Who is in danger	Control Method	Has Control Method Been Done
Tripping over wire.	Medium.	Actor, Director, Other people present.	Ensure wires are out of the way during film. Tie wires up when not being used.	Yes.
Knocking over Camera equipment	Low.	Actor, Director, Other people present.	Ensure equipment is securely placed with no tripping hazard and no hazard to bumping into equipment.	Yes
Too much exposure to intense lighting.	Medium.	Actor.	Ensure lighting is switched off to ensure the safety of the actor.	Yes.
Unstable surface that could cause injury.	Low.	Actor, Director, Other people present.	Ensure that everyone has appropriate footwear on while on location.	Yes
Slipping due to wet weather.	Low.	Actor, Director, Other people present.	Make sure that everyone has appropriate clothing on. Use contingency plan if it is unsuitable for filming.	Yes.

Costumes

Upper body costume

For the upper body which will be shown throughout most of the scenes in the video i have taken inspiration from some of the outfits that Lorde herself wearing during performances and during photo shoots, the clothing that she wears fits in well with the type of music that she does (indie pop). I have also taken inspiration from a lot of popular clothing that people wear currently that is classified as "Indie" for example the oversized denim jacket, this would be an ideal piece to use in some of the outside shots however if this is not available it will not effect the video too much. I have also looked at oversized t-shirts and sleeveless t-shirts that feature notable punk bands.

Lower body costume

For the lower body I have focused on clothing items such as skater skirts, skinny jeans and doc martens for footwear. These clothing items are similar to other outfits that Lorde has worn in the past whether at red carpet events, going out, photo shoots or in videos. Her style fits well for the song that I am going to be using so having my actress dress fairly similar will work with the type of song that I am going to be doing.

Treatment

Treatment

My intentions for this video is to use majority of performance based footage, for example I want the artist to be behind a back drop with the backdrop looking fairly rugged to symbolise a juxtaposition as the song is about confidence and having self-confidence but showing the rugged background will show that before being confident in yourself you have little to no confidence which will be a good look for the video. I would also want some of the shots being done outdoors, in a field, this could be done as a juxtaposition for the artist as well as staying true to the original meaning of the song. If possible for parts of the song, a vanity mirror could be used as at the right angle the artist can be looking into it and lip syncing whilst getting ready with the vanity mirror. For shots during the instrumental of the song using jump cuts that are triggered by the song would give a good effect because it will look as it the song is controlling the video.

Planning Track Lorde - Bravado

Lorde - Bravado

The song I have chosen to use for my music video is a song by New Zealand singer Lorde, the song Bravado was featured on her debut EP 'The Love Club EP' released in 2013. The song as a single was first released in early September 2013 as a digital download under Universal Music Group. The song it's self reached number 5 on the New Zealand Artists Singles chart courtesy of Recorded Music NZ  and number 29 on the US Hot Rock songs courtesty of Billboard.

Lorde is a 17 year old singer from Takapuka, Aukland, New Zealand. She currently writes majority of her music with long time friend and grammy award winning songwriter/musician Joel Little. Lorde's main genre of music is electronica, pop and rock however some of her music has been stylised as indie rock, indie pop, synth pop and indie electronica. At 17 she is the youngest person to win 2 Grammy Awards for her song Royals, was included in 'Time's' list of most influencial teens and included in Forbe's list of 30 under 30 young people that are changing the world.

Lorde first gained herselfa huge amount of success when she released her first single 'Royals' orginally from 'The Love Club EP' and then reissued onto her first album 'Pure Heroine'. Royals was regognised as one of the best songs of 2013 because of how successful the song was around the world. The song got in the top 10 of year end charts in Australia, New Zealand and on two US Billboard charts and was number 1 on 23 different weekly charts around the world. Royals also got 7 platinum awards for the success of it. Currently for Royals she has one 8 awards including 2 Grammy awards.

The song has influences from Kanye West's song 'Dark Fantasy' as the song features a lyric that she said she used as inspiration which is 'Me found bravery in my bravado' which she stated in an interview with MTV on January 15th 2014. Overall the song is mainly about being confident with yourself or overly confident near to being cocky as it is seen by the lyrics that are in the featured in the song, becuase of this it gave me a few ideas of what I can use for my video.

Paramore - Ignorance Music Video Analysis

Paramore - Ignorance

The video for Paramore's single Ignorance was released on the fueled by ramen youtube page on August 13th 2009 directed by Laura Honey.

Lighting
The lighting that is provided for this video is from a single light bulb that is featured as a main feature in the centre of the video that the lead singer uses as a prop in the video. Overall majority of the lighting is quite dark possibly relating to how the lead singer feels as she is seen shining the light on her band members which could indicate that they are the light to her life or that they have done her wrong in the past so she is pointing the blame towards them by shining the light onto them as well as herself. Around the 1:06 mark a strobe light is used whilst the band is in a studio performing, there are a lot of quick cuts when the strobe light is being used so this could also be related to that.

Editing
Most of this video has been quickly edited to fit the pace of the song, this is mainly done whilst there is only instrumental playing, when the lead singer begins to sing the cuts have been slowed down so that the viewers can focus on her singing. At about 0:36 the singer grabs the light bulb and pulls it back violently causing it to cut to the next location which is in a studio, after this it then cuts back to being in the small room with the rest of her band. At 1:34 the camera zooms in on the lead singer then cuts to another shot of the lead singer this time in a different location and in a different costume, this could be an idea that I could use for my video. A part at 2:12 their is a series of quick cuts between scenes, this is done to fit the beat of the track that is playing in the background.

Mise en Scene

Hayley Williams' hair and make up when she is inside the small room includes light face make up with it getting heavier around the eyes. She has a pale red lipstick on, her hair is straight and natural with half of her hair covering parts of her face. When she is seen in the studio her hair and make up stay relatively the same however she changes the outfit that she is wearing. At about 1:40 her eye make up gets a lot heavier, this could signify character changing in the narrative for example the heavier her eye make up is it could show that she is going crazy to relate to the track.
She also has three costume changes in the video to relate to the three different locations in the video. The first outfit she is seen wearing includes a sleeveless leather jacket with black jeans and red and white shoes, her outfit in the opening relates to the environment that she is in. In the next scene she is seen wearing a two tone black and white shirt with black jeans and similar red shoes from the first setting. In the third scene Haley is seen wearing a one piece suit that has black zips on them, this could relate to her decent to madness as her outfit is similar to that of a straight jacket, another part of this scene that shows she has gone mad is the crazy hairstyle she is seen to be wearing and heavier eye make up than the previous two scenes. The rest of the band is wearing grey/dark shirts with other dark clothing in the two scenes that they are featured in.

Camerawork
This video features a lot of long takes where they either focus on the full band or Hayley herself. When there are long takes the camera usually begins to tilt around in different areas, the tilting and rapid camera movements begin to speed up when Hayley is in the third location, this could also be a hint that she has lost her mind hence the setting that she is in. The camerawork also includes a lot of zooming in, for example at 1:34 the camera does a quick zoom towards Hayley and then cuts to a new scene, this works well for this video and the narrative because it is showing a progression in the story.The camera also focuses a lot on the light bulb that Hayley uses in the video as noted previously this is an important part of the narrative of the video.

Magazine Advert Analysis

5 Seconds of Summer

The first magazine advert I have looked at is for the Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer which was featured on the back of Rocksound issue for Summer 2014. The main image of this advert is an image of the band together, there is no clear sign of who is the lead singer of the band or the main star of the group. The image of the band is in a studio, this could possibly be an idea that I use later on for my own magazine advert. Over the band and the background has been spray painted an 'X' possibly to give the effect of them being crossed out or as a reference to a song that is on the album. The band is seen to be wearing outfits to make them look 'punk' or edgy, this could be used to indicate the type f music that they play or the type of audience they are trying to gravitate towards. Although their is no specific indication of the title of the album it is possible that it is a self titled album. The bands name is written in a label writer style and the bands logo is located directly underneath it,  this is done to draw attention to them and to make it known who the band is. The style of the font that is used for the extra text on the advert is done as if it was written in a marker pen, the release date of the album is put next to it indicating that the album is out now for people to buy, this is next to the logo of the band as it is important information for people who are going to buy the album. At the bottom of the advert is the website of the band in the same style as the bands name and the logo for Capitol Records.

Bury Tomorrow

The advertisement for Bury Tomorrow's new album was featured on the back of the Rocksound issue for July 2014. The main image features the band with the members looking towards the camera, even though it isn't entirely clear the member that is in the foreground is likely to be the main singer as he is seen to be the main focus of the photo. Overlaid on the  image of the band is the album artwork and on top of that is the full album art that will feature on the digipak. The size of the font alternates, the most important parts of the advert are in a large, bold font, these are 'Bury Tomorrow' the name of the album 'Runes' and when the album will be available 'In Stores May 26th' this is because it is the information that people will need to know if they are going to buy the album. For an advertisement this contains a high amount of text as it shows an official review of the album from Rocksound as well as what platform the album will be available on and when you can meet the band at HMV, this is an odd occurrence for album advertisements but HMV is promoting the sale of the album at the stores so it would mean more if this was featured on the advertisement. On the bottom panel it features the logo for their record label and where you can contact the record label for example their social media accounts are listed.

Pete Fraser Codes and Conventions of Music Videos Summary

Camerawork:
Camerawork is the most important as it focuses on the performer of the video, the camerawork will show a performers talents for example dancing/singing/playing instruments, when camerawork is used to showcase talents it is supposed to show how highly talented and charasmatic the band/artist is during the video for example doing close ups of them playing a guitar or singing will express their talents towards the intended audience, close ups will also make the viewer feel more intiment towards the video and feel a connection to the artist more if the camera is close up to them. The camerawork should also clealy show who the main star of the video is for example the singer or lead singer in a band.

Editing
Using only the best shots to have as the final product to showcase the most important and best shots that were filmed. The editing process can also include different post production effects such as overlaid text or other digital effects that can enhance the final visual product.

Star Image
A star is an image constructed from a range of materials(Richard Dyer 1979).
Mainly for the pop genre of music the star image is important for example before releasing a new music video their record label may make them do appearances or get in the papers for something whether it be positive or negative to draw as much attention to themselves before releasing something. Artists like Beyonce will rarely need to use promotion to help things sell as she is already a big name but other people who are upcoming artists/bands will also use close ups to establish who the main star of the video is. 

Voyerism
Usually this is showing off the female body mainly in the videos brought out my male performers when they use establishing shots on the female body to bring attention to that and to boost the male stars ego. In the instance of a female performer they will usually have their own body sexualised for example in Miley Cyrus' video for 'Wrecking Ball' her body is incredibly sexualised bringing all of the attention to her and only showing her off for her body rather than her talent.

Intertextuality
Intertextuality is showing references to cinema or other popular culture references, this is mainly done to make the audience feel more included in the video as if the artist was putting the audience into consideration. A band or artist could have done a song that was featured in a movie that is coming out at the time, for example the Australian band Tonight Alive brought out a music video for the Sony Pictures movie The Amazing Spiderman 2, the video featured shots from the movie in it. As well as movies the artist could reference video games for example Red Hot Chilli Peppers' video 'Californication' where the video was supposed to replicate a video game.

Narrative and Performance
Music videos are usually done with a clear narrative possibly relating to the song and a performance by the artist or band. 
Other commentators have divided music videos in terms of style, though often there will be crossover between these; apart from Performance and Narrative, it is possible to identify at least six: Gothic, Animated, Dreamscapes, Portraiture, Futuristic and Home Movie.


Reference: Pete Fraser Teaching Music Video (BFI 2004)

Lorde - Royals Music Video Analysis

Lorde - Royals

The video for Royals was Lorde's first international music video release, the date of the release was 18th of June 2013 and directed by Joel Kefali. The video that I am going to be analysing is the US version of the video as the original/Australasia version of the video is not suitable to analyse.

Editing
The editing for some parts of the video, mainly around the 0:37 mark are done so that the scenes cut to the beat of the music. When the clicking sound occurs on the track the video cuts to the next scene in the narrative part of the video. The editing for this video seems to be slow, for example when Lorde herself is featured in the video there will be long takes, in one instance at 2:18 Lorde is in the shot for about 25 seconds before the next cut, Pete Fraser noted in his theory about Music Videos that star image is important so having Lorde on the screen for 25 seconds will establish that she is the main star of the video. The use of slow cuts also adds to the dynamic of the video because not only is the track a slow song but relating to the lyrics it tries hard to emphasise the meaning of the song. The video also includes a jump cuts at 1:59 when the two actors are boxing in the living room, this could be done to establish the shot and the personality of the character for example showing that the character is tough because he is punching the other person. Slow motion is used on some shots, for example on the shot where one of the actors are in the pool the shot is slowed down possibly indicating a passing of time. Editing has also been used to establish the relationship between one of the actors that feature in the video and Lorde herself, even though it isn't clear what the relationship is between these people it is shown at 2:10 when the actor has a blank stare then after a cut to a scenery shot it then shows Lorde at 2:13 with a slight smile then another establishing shot where they are seen to be doing similar action however this has been quickly edited compared to the rest of the video.

Mise en Scene
Mise en Scene is important for this video, mainly for Lorde as this shows that she is the main star of the video. Lorde's make up is very pale but uses the eye make up as her statement piece to her look, the winged eyeliner works well because of the light make up she already has on her face. Her hair has been curled with half of it pushed to the other side of her head, this adds to the plain look of the video as there is nothing special going on with her hair style in the video.

Her costume is just a plain white t-shirt, a bracelet and a necklace, not a lot of her costume is shown in the video as the shots are either mid-range or close ups so you never see the lower half of her costume, her costume is plain as is the rest of the video, this could have been done so that it fits the style of the video. The costume for the actors in the video are mainly plain t-shirts in colours such as grey, ill fitting shorts and a chain type necklace. Some of the actors are not wearing shirts, this could add to the idea in the song that they are poor and cannot afford nice clothing to wear or that they do not care what they are wearing.

Lighting
The majority of the lighting in the video is bright mainly done to illuminate Lorde's face in the video, there is no shadows in the video and is seen to be a rather clear lighting choice. There are some shots in the video where dark lighting is used, for example in some area where the actors are being used they use the natural light for example at 1:43 when the two actors are in the bathroom the lighting has been used from the small window in the background, for when the actors are on screen using minimal lighting could indicate that they don't have the resources to use electricity such as artificial lighting which would fit in with the narrative of the video.

Camerawork
In this video long takes are used frequently, since this is the US version of the video Lorde has a lot more longer takes than in the original New Zealand/International version of the video. Long takes have been used in the video to secure the star image of Lorde and to show that she is the main star of the video. When Lorde is featured in the video a lot of her shots are close ups, this is focusing on her voice and her singing. Mid-range shots are also used for when Lorde is on the screen, since her costume in the video isn't as important mid-range shots are rarely used as there is no need for them to be used. For the actors on screen more mid-range and long shots are used, this could be because they are not the focus of the video or to work to the narrative so that you can see all of them. In the beginning and the end of the song a tracking shot is done, the shot lasts for about 10 seconds, the shot shows the camera progressing down the street, this could be because it is linked to the video for example it is a poor area of the town which links to the actors in the video or it is there just for the opening and ending of the video.

Websites Analysis

lorde.co.nz

I have also looked at Lorde's website as this is the artist that I am considering doing a music video for one of Lorde's songs. Her website features her name at the top of the screen in block capitals similar to how she had stylised it for her debut album, underneath her name features the name of her debut album 'Pure Heroine'. The background of the website is a close up shot of Lorde herself looking down. In total there are six hotspots at the bottom of the page, these are symbols for the links that they are for. There is an apple logo that will redirect you to the itunes store to buy her album, a Twitter symbol that will link you to her Twitter page (@LORDEMUSIC), a Tumblr symbol that will link you to her Tumblr page (lordemusic.tumblr.com), a Facebook symbol for her Facebook page, an Instagram symbol for her Instagram account and a letter symbol to link you subscribe to her mailing list to find out about possible tours and single releases. Overall this page is incredibly plain with few features apart from links to social media, iTunes and a mailing list.

twentyonepilots.com

I also looked at the website for music groupd Twenty One Pilots. The front page of their website includes their band logo featured in the colour scheme of the entire website which is black, white and red. A portrait of the band is featured at the top of the webpage in a red hue. The hotspots  are featured at the top right of the page in a red, lowercase font similar to the rest of the page, these are links redirecting the user to news about the group, music, about, photos, videos, tour and store. when redirected the each page features similar colour scheme to the homepage. The homepage also features a youtube link to their latest music video release as well as a sidebar where you can play their full album on spottily. There are more hotspots located at the side linking to a external page to sign up for their mailing list and hotspots located at the bottom of their page linking viewers to their social media sites and terms of service on the site.

Magazine Advert Analysis

Royal Blood

The first magazine advert I am going to analyse is the advert for the debut album of British band Royal Blood, the album is called Royal Blood. The main colour scheme of the advert is black and white as the background where the main image and text is placed is white with the bar below being black. The image which is the centre of the advert is a portrait styled image of a woman. The main text is advertising the band and the name of the album, the text is stylised to look faded in a faded black colour. The bottom bar is black with white text, the font of the text is similar to the font used, the text at the top of the black bar says 'debut album'. Underneath in a much smaller font are three reviews from music magazines, these are only about a few words to get to the point and to make the album sound as good as possible to help increase sales of the album. At the very bottom of the advert you can see the date that the album is being released, this is in a large white font to draw attention of the people who read the magazine and will see this advert, having the release date at the bottom in a large font will ensure that people know when to buy the album. Small logos are included in the bottom left and bottom right hand corners, one for HMV to advertise where you can purchase the album and the record label that the band is signed to.

Twin Atlantic

I have also looked at the magazine advert for 'Great Divide' by Twin Atlantic. The entire background of the advert is white. The top of the advert features four flags with the Twin Atlantic logo embellished onto the flag, the flags are supposed to represent the four members of Twin Atlantic. Twin Atlantic is written below the main image, the font is of a medium size with the 'W' and 'N' being overlapped. As the importance of the text lowers the size of the font will get smaller, the name of the album is in quite a large font in a similar style fitting the rest of the advert. All of the text is black so it is visible for the white background. Underneath the release date you can see what features on the album for example showing what songs are going to be on the album, these are usually incredibly popular songs release to build hype for the initial album release. It also features text advertising what platform you can buy the album on and when the band is going on tour. The bottom of the advert shows the logos for the band, their record label and for HMV. It also features the website for the band to find out more information about the new album as well as the band and the website for their record label which you could buy the album from and find out about similar bands.

Empress AD

This is the magazine advert featured in Rocksound for the debut album of the band Empress AD. The top right of the advertisement features the bands logo in white, this is constrained into a small circle, the text is white so that it is legible on the foreground of the image behind it. The main background image features the album artwork, the artwork is no clear image as it looks to represent a painting. Underneath the album art is a black bar with all of the relevant information for the audience of the magazine. All text on this is of a similar font style alternating between bold text on different lines of the advertisement. The text sizes also alternate depending on importance for example the name of the album *second line (Still Life Moving Fast)* is in a bold, all capitals white text style with the release date of the album being of the same credentials as the album name, this is because it is the most important part of the advertisement, the name of the album and when it will be released, it is also shown to be the most eye catching parts of the advertisement as it is the first thing you look at when you see this advertisement in the magazine. Other parts of text include songs that are featured on the album so that people who enjoyed them songs may be influenced to listen to the entire album as well as what platform the album will be available on for example this particular album will be available on CD, Digital download and Vinyl with download card.