Ancillary Task: Advert

To create my Magazine Advert I used Photoshop.

It is important to build relationships between the band and the targeted audience as with my website and the video.

I took a the pictures I wanted to use and opened them into photoshop. I used photoshop because it has a variety of tools that were useful for what I needed to do. It was also used as it is easy to export the text as a jpeg image.  

The images are used to show the audience what the album cover looks like. I have also taken a picture from the video filming and used this to advertise the song. Other photos were taken however they did not go with the image I wanted to create for my group.

To improve my advert I feel I should have added more images and some more information on the album. This would allow my audience to know more about the girls and in ways get to know them better.

I feel my advert matches the video and they complement each other. They both show the girl group as being fun with a slight edge. They are clearly aimed at young girls and teenagers due to the use of colours and the style of the media products. The language used is colloquial therefore they will not only be able to understand the text but relate to it as well. This is the same with all my media texts. 

Overall I feel that I have created an average magazine advert that will sell my band and appeal to my targeted audience.



Ancillary Task: Website

For my ancillary task I created a website homepage using Wix. This in an online programme that allows people to create a website.

It is important to build relationships between the band and the targeted audience. This way they can relate to the girls more and then they purchase more merchandise and music. This is also important to the record labels. Therefore I have tried to build these bonds using as many ways as I can.

I took a template from the website and added my own information, pictures, text styles and colours. The background is very contemporary and fits in well with the style of my girl group. I wanted my website to be slightly edgy, so there is some use of black and other dark colours. However, this contrasts the bright images so they stand out.

On my website there is a link to the music and a Twitter feed. This helps to show that our product is aimed at teenagers because it allows them to feel as if they know the group well and create relationships. There is also a small section of a blog, which tells the audience what the band have been up to.  Tour dates are also given to advertise them to the audience.

The images are used to show the audience what the girls have been doing; again this is so that they build relationships. Other photos were taken however they did not go with the image I wanted to create for my group.

To improve my website I feel I should have added more information about the band, for example where they came from and how they got to where they are.  This would allow my audience to know more about the girls and in ways get to know them better.

I feel my website matches the video and they complement each other. They both show the girl group as being fun with a slight edge. They are clearly aimed at young girls and teenagers due to the use of colours and the style of the media products. The language used is colloquial therefore they will not only be able to understand the text but relate to it as well.

 

Overall I feel that I have created a good website hompage that will sell my band and appeal to my targeted audience.

Final Video

This is our final video 'Saturday Night' 

 

 

 

 

Our final video was put onto Youtube, so that it is easier to view and we are able to get audience feedback. There were some changes from what was originally planned; however it still fits the brief. I am overall fairly happy with the video. As a group we decided that being of the pop genre it should be full of dancing as well as the typical close-ups demanded by record labels to sell the artists. We assigned people to different jobs; playing the music, filming etc. This made the whole thing easier to film because it was organised. Most of the filming was done as long continuous panning shot; this made the editing process easier.

To improve our video I feel that we should have continued with the original story and included the party scene. Also if the quality of cameras was to be better than the overall video would have looked more professional. Although some of the video was different from what we had planned it still meets the ‘pop video requirements’ and will still target out intended audience.



Editing: Advertisment

Here are some of the stages of the editing for my advertisement:

Firstly I created the background. I made the first layer white and then I created another layer which was a light pink, this took up half the page. This was done to make the whole advert more interesting and appealing to our audience. 

I then took the image from the filming and put it into a new Photoshop page. I cut out the image then copied it to my advert.

When I put it in place I used the blur tool to go around the edge of my image, so that the image looked better quality on the page.

After I added the image of the album cover which I had previously made on Photoshop. Then I put on information about the album including the album name, the band name, what it includes and the release date.










Finally I added a darker blurred line between the two colours and some grey lines to make it more appealing. This is my complete advert.

Health and Saftey

Health and safety is important in any industry. So when filming our video we had to take into account the safety of us, our cast and anyone else helping out. Therefore we had to ensure that all fire exits were clear and had visible signs,  all wires were away or taped down, props were stored safely and that there were no obstructions (eg. stacks of chairs, ladders...).

In our video we planned to have people dancing on tables, so before we done this we had some time to practice and to ensure everyone was safe and comfortable. When getting onto the table the cast were supported by others member so they were safe at all times.

We also checked the room for any other hazzards before the filming started. There was also a person by the door so that others did not walk in and disturb the actors or walk into them while dancing.

Changes to the Video

Changes

During the recoding process we had to make some minor changes. For one we we're not able to film the party scene due to time and not being able to get to our planned location. So we used other footage to fill in the gaps. We had to ensure that our video still made sense and flowed well. The office footage was still the same and so that was used as the main focus of our video. We still feel that our target audience will be able to relate to and enjoy our video because they would have been in a similar situation to the one shown in our video. Also the music and the dance routine  along with the costumes will help to attract them and draw the audience in.

Filming Begins

Location:
The filming took place in the school in a sixth form room so that it looked like a staff meeting.

Actors:
We used the sixth form students as they were wearing stylish business wear, which is what we wanted.

Shots:
As a group we thought it was a good idea to film one long shot with panning angle changes to get the whole cast in. This worked well and looked effective.

Problems:
We planned to film the first scene with as many people as possible but we had to cut down as it was extremely difficult to direct and choreograph that large amount of people. Also this was not a private room so there were many distractions and people walking in and out. So we will film that section of the video again with fewer people in a more private location.

From this I have learnt that this will be the most difficult part to film and that more preparation for it will be needed.

Letter of Permission

Here is what was written in my Letter of permission to use the song 'Saturday Night:

Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing to you to ask for your permission to use Whigfiled’s song ‘Saturday Night' for my A Level media work, a music video. There will be no profit made from using this song and it will be used for advertising purposes. There will be no copyright intended.

Elizabeth Dougherty





A letter of permission is needed because record companies have copyright over the song. Without their permission it use the music you would be breaking copyright laws and could get a fine or prison sentence. As our video is not being used to make a profit or advertise it should not be in breach of the copyright laws.  

Photos for Ancillary Task

Ancillary Photos

We choose this location as it was natural and the frost on ground looked effective. Some of the pictures worked better than others, for example the first two are very effective. We used the environment to our advantage. We also took some pictures in the snow however they did not work so well. This location was also chosen because we wanted our audience to relate to it, so that they can build a relationship/friendship with the duo as they would have been to similar places.

The costumes are the same as in the video, this is a good link. They are modern and will appeal to our target audience.

Draft of Ancillary Tasks

For my ancillary tasks I have chosen to create a website homepage and A4 magazine advert for my video.

Website Homepage:

My home page will contain;

. The name of the band/group (logo)
. A main image of the girls
. A link to the photo gallery with some examples
. Some basic information on the group
. Some blogs of what they've been up to
. A Youtube like to the video
. A link to a social media site for the band (e.g. Twitter and Facebook)

I plan to use mostly pink and black as our audience is teenage females, I feel that this would appeal to them more. The language will be colloquial to ensure that are audience understands and can relate.  







Magazine Advert 

My Magazine Advert will contain;

. The name of the band/group (logo)

. The name of the album

. An image of the album

. Information about the release date

. What the album contains

. Additional pictures of the girls, possibly from the video.   

Again, I plan to use mostly pink and black as our audience is teenage females, I feel that this would appeal to them more. Like the website, the language will be colloquial to ensure that are audience understands and can relate.   

Planned Locations

Planned Locations:

Class Room:
We will use a class room to film our office scene. To ensure it looks like an office we will set up the tables in the middle of the room so that it looks like a meeting room. We need a large amount of space so that the actors could dace around safely.

Outside:
The outside footage will be taken in the woods, we done this because it will show our band's journey home. Also the scenery should look effective.

House: 
The party scene will filmed in a house because we want it to look like a real house party to ensure that our target audience could relate and enjoy our video.

Costumes

We have about 3 planned scenes for our music video. Each one requires the actors to wear different clothing. For the meeting shots, business clothes were in order; Suits, ties and other clothing you would wear in an office. However we want a slightly casual feel to this part, so that teenagers can still relate to it.

For the walking home shots we plan to wear the same as in the office but with outdoor coats on. This is to show that we have just left the office and are walking home.

The last part of our story will take place at a party, so party clothes and heels will be worn. This is also due to the fact we are aiming our video at teenagers, again they will be able to relate to our video.

Here are some examples of the sort clothing we would like in our video:

Actors

Cast:

Girl Group:
Alice Wright and Elizabeth Dougherty



The Office Staff:
Craig Pinto, Becca Settle, Teresa Castronova, Andreaus and Joseph Benton (Plus others)



The Party People: 

As many of the sixth form as possible.

Questionnaire and Results

Questionnaire:

We asked 10 males and 10 females, aged 16-18 a range of questions about the pop music genre.

Questions:

How old are you?

Are you male or female?

Do you listen to pop music? If no, then please state the genre of music you listen to.

What do you feel makes a good pop song?

What do you think should be included in a music video in order to make it a success?

Who do you think is a successful pop artist and why?

Have you seen any pop videos that have caught your attention? If yes, please state what video and how it caught your attention.

Do you feel the image of the artist affects the audience?

Are there any 90’s pop songs you listen to or know of?

Do you feel party dance songs (i.e. The Macarena, Saturday Night, Cha Cha Slide and Las Ketchup) are still popular? If yes why, do you think this?

Results:

Pop Research

Research: 

Whigfield:

Sannie Charlotte Carlson (born 11 April 1970), best known as Whigfield, is a Danish euro-dance singer best known for the song "Saturday Night" which was a worldwide hit during the summer of 1994. This song became so popular due to the easy to follow dance moves that became associated with this song. Also the lyrics are catchy and are picked up easily. 

The video to this song is simple and only has one setting. Whigfield is seen getting ready to go out during the video and uses the idea of her looking into a mirror (voyeurism). There is not much to this video but this is due to its worldwide popularity and it having to have to be recorded in a number of languages. 

Spice Girls:

The Spice Girls are a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consists of five members, who each later adopted nicknames initially ascribed to them: Melanie Brown("Scary Spice"), Melanie Chisholm ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"), and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30 countries and helped establish the group as a global phenomenon.

The spice girls target audience was young girls and their popularity came from the catchy songs. Each member also had a different personality, broadening the audience because girls could choose what Spice Girl they wanted to be like. The majority of their videos contained easy to copy dance moves, to appeal to their target audience. They were also a brand, they sold many products like dolls, clothing, perfume and much more. The Spice Girls conform very much to Goodwin's theory. 

Las Ketchup:

Las Ketchup is a Spanish pop girl group, founded by flamenco producer, Manuel Ruiz. The group is best known for the 2002 song, "The Ketchup Song" , which sold over 7 million singles worldwide. This dance, like 'Saturday Night' had simple to follow dance moves, this was more likely the reason for its great success. 

Along with this research we will conduct a questionnaire amongst our peers (target audience).

Analysis of Reasearch

From my research I have found a number of things:

• Girl group's target audience are usually younger girls or teenage girls.
• The catchy songs are most often the ones with greater popularity.
• The girls targeted like the videos to have dance routines so that they can copy them  (idolise the girls in the band).
• Girl bands videos often have a narrative features (tell a story to some extent), probably to get their young audience drawn in to what will happen next. 

I will use this information to help me to create my video and make it as conventional to the pop genre as possible.

Video Planning

Mind maps:

We created a mind map to get our first ideas down, so that we could work on and develop them. We mapped the setting, lighting, costume and other content we wanted in our video.

Lyric Break Down:

We also printed off some lyrics of the song and broke them down to to edits, cuts and scene changes. This will be useful for when we go out and film out video. It will also make the editing of the video a lot easier.


Story Board:

This is our first story board, it shows the shots and angles we plan to use in our video. It has rough images of what we wanted and some descriptions of the shots.
















Planning is important because it will make the video better quality. It will make the whole thing easier to create and edit as all our ideas are organised.

Brainstorm

As a group we got together and created a brainstorm of our initial ideas. However, we found that some songs are not older then 10 years and so were still very much copyrighted, so we were unable to use them.  We also put down some brief ideas of what the video might contain and some camera angles. 

Audience Profile

Audience Profile:

Our video will be aimed at teenagers/young adults who enjoy listening to pop music. There is no real specific stereotype that we are targeting. It will be aimed at young adults, college and university students, aged 17-24. Our target is not gender specific and so the content of the video can be wide ranging. We are using a 'party dance' and so that is why we are targeting a younger audience who are more likely to go to parties.

We will use the story of our video, the settings, the props, the costumes and actors to appeal to our audience. It should be bright, fun and easy to understand. The music will also help us to appeal to our target audience.

Brief of our Music Video

Brief:

To create a pop promo music video using a dance track. We plan to follow the usual conventions of a pop video. The song should be fast paced because we are going to target a younger audience. The song we use should have simple dance moves to improve audience interaction and participation. This will hopefully appeal to a greater number of people and create a popular video.

We intend to have a large number of people in our video as well as our band members. We will have a girl band and so the song we choose must be from a female artist or girl band. This will help appeal to our large audience.

Evaluation of Previous Taks

This is my first attempt at a music video, Peggy Lee's Fever. We decided to use the lyrics to base our shots on. We used a range of shots and effects. The shots were used to create mystery and to tell the story. The effects were also used to create mystery but also to 'age' the clips; for example the 'Romeo and Juliet' scene is sepia to show that there is some age to it however we used modern clothes to add a twist to the story.

As you can see some of what we done for this video didnt work. We needed more footage at points and some of the camera angles didn't work. I have learnt from this and so my final video should be a great deal better.

This task has allowed me to get to grips with the programme 'iMovie' and how to edit the video to a good standard. Also I was able to lip sync the video and find out what worked well and what didn’t. Therefore our actual music video should be good quality, well edited and flow as a piece.

Goodwin’s Theory in Practice

Goodwin’s Theory in Practice.

I am going to analyse two music videos using Goodwin’s theory. My first video is Vogue by Madonna and the second will be ‘Rusted by the Rain’ by Billy Talent.

‘Vogue’ by Madonna

Multiple points of Goodwin’s theory are shown throughout this video. Point 1 of Goodwin’s theory (genre-related style) is shown in this video as Madonna is a pop artist and her video represents this by the dancing and the acting. It’s very ‘cheesy’ and over the top, like in most pop videos. Point 2 of his theory is also present; the visuals correlate with the lyrics. One example in this video is when Madonna sings about ‘It makes no difference if you're black or white’ and her video is in black and white and the costumes that are worn in this video are black and white. Also point 3, having a relationship between the music and the onscreen visuals is shown in Madonna’s ‘Vogue’.  This video is very much in the genre of pop and the onscreen visuals clearly shows this, with the upbeat music and the over the top dance routines. The visuals illustrate the music. Point four of Goodwin’s theory (The record label’s demands, shown through close ups ect.)  is a big part in this video as Madonna is given many close ups. This links well with point 5 (voyeurism) Madonna is known to ‘sell’ sex to the average population through her music and especially her videos. This video is no exception; she wears provocative clothing and dances sexually with the male dancers. Also in this video are pictures and statues of naked women. Point 6 is not so prominent in this video, however this video was inspired by the Hollywood golden age and the magazine ‘Vogue’. In the video Madonna sings about famous actors  ‘Greta Garbo, and Monroe, Deitrich and DiMaggio, Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean On the cover of a magazine’,  showing where the inspiration came from, the video is also in black and white like the movies in the golden age of Hollywood.  All points of Goodwin’s theory are shown in this video, whether it is a little or a lot.

‘Rusted by the Rain’ by Billy Talent

Some of Goodwin’s points are present in this music video. Point 1 is clearly shown as Billy Talent fall well into the rock genre, in this video its shown as the band are playing there instruments, there’s no dance routines and the video is fairly dark. Point 2 is again present in this video, as there is a relationship between the lyrics and the onscreen visuals. The band are playing in a metal scrap yard and the lyrics are ‘I’m rusted from the rain, the sun will shine again’, also the other story within the video is of a homeless man collecting rusted and scrap metal. So there is a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. Point 3, there is a relationship between the music and the onscreen visuals. The music is loud and hard because it is a rock music video, the relationship is shown as the video is fairly dark and you can see the band playing there instruments. Point 4, is partially present in this video because there are some close ups of the band members however this is not to create a motif. Points 5 and 6 are not relevant with this video because of the genre.

Comparison

The two videos are very different as the genres are almost opposite. Madonna uses her videos to gain increasing popularity and to sell herself; this is the same with most pop artists.  Whereas Billy Talent only appeal to a limited audience and these types of bands are usually trying to send out a message. Andrew Goodwin’s theory points are more relevant when analyzing pop videos and artists.

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory

Goodwin’s Theory

Andrew Goodwin in 1992 wrote the book ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ explaining his theory on music videos. His music video analysis consists of 6 main points;

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (genre-related style).

2. There is a relationship between the lyrics of the song and the onscreen visuals.

3. There is a relationship between the actual music and the onscreen visuals. It will amplify, illustrate  or contradict.

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists. They may develop motifs which recur across their work.

5. There is reference to voyeuristic treatment, usually of the female body.  

6. There is often intersexual reference to other media texts.

His theory is used to analyse the videos, to show how they are made to be as successful as possible and how they are aimed at different sections of the population. His theory can be seen in almost all music videos.

Introduction to the Task

A2 media studies is based on camera skills and editing. These are the 8 points we need to do, to be successful in the task.

1-The ability to hold a sot steady.
2- Framing a shot appropriately.
3- Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.
4-Shoot material appropriate to the task set. 
5- Selecting mise-ne-scene, including colour, figure,lighting, objects and setting.
6-Editing so the meaning is apparent to the viewer.
7- Using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set.
8- Using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.