Message to Moderator

Hello, my name is Bronte Rose Ainsley and welcome to my blog. It contains all of my work for the coursework unit G324 A2 Media Studies. I am working with one other person, Rachel Harriman, and we have decided to create a music video and other products to advertise the song Schoolin' Life by Beyonce. This task took six months to complete and you can see each stage of progression by using the tabs at the top of my blog. I hope you enjoy looking through my work as much as I have enjoyed producing it.

Thank you,
Bronte Rose Ainsley

Peer Feedback 3

The third group mentioned the same thing (about the star ratings in the advert) which gave us enough reason to change them. We found this feedback useful as it gave us opportunities to identify where we have done well and the places that could be improved.

Peer Feedback 2

Again another group of people evaluated all of our products however a lot of their comments were quite particular so we decided they weren't bad enough or widely agreed by other viewers for us to change them.

Peer Feedback 1

This is the feedback we got off one group in class who watched our music video and looked at our digipak and advert. We took their comments into consideration to try to make our products as appealing as possible.

Professional Feedback

Professional feedback from bronterachel

We got in touch with a professional from the media industry to analyse our video and tell us the strengths and points for improvements.

Final Fonts

Final fonts from bronterachel

This is the font we chose. We used photoshop to create the final font.

Test Fonts

Test fonts from bronterachel

These are some fonts we tried to see if they'd look good on our products. We tried to make sure they're inkeeping with the retro style we are going for.

Question 4

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

Question 2

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

Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question One

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

Studio Test Footage

We wanted to have shots with the studio lights in it (inspired by SBTRKT Pharaohs ft. Roses Gabor and Beyonce ft. Jay Z Crazy in Love) but because it was in front of the green screen the thin pole dissolved into the background and made the quality look unprofessional.

Test Footage 5

We actually used this footage in the music video but it was originally filmed to see what it would be like just using one dancer instead of a group. We decided we liked it and used snippets of it for Schoolin' Life.

Test Footage 4

The main focus in the clip is to see what not to use. We decided to film using extreme techniques of focus to see if it'd be too much, we decided it was and would use more suble skills in the actual music video.

Test Footage 3

Rachel took this footage to experiment with focus, zooming and movement of the camera. These three elements will add more excitement and movement to our music video.

Test Footage 2

Again this is me teaching the performers the routine to ensure they get it right and can make it look sharp and professional. This footage was taken using the bright white lights to see how they would look.

Test Footage 1

This is me teaching the performers the routine for the dance section. Rachel took this test footage to experiment with the focus on her camera and to seen how the performance looked with the lights on.

Question 4 Draft

Question 4 from bronterachel

Question 3 Draft

Question 3 from bronterachel

Question 2 Draft

Question 1 Draft

FINAL music video

Throughout the production of this video we had some technical problems resulting in the need to adjust the widths and heights of the clips so they're all the same. We added more moving shots as suggested in our audience feedback and made small tweaks to where necessary. We did a final check over every aspect of the video and tried to change things to make them look as good as possible. We hope this final cut reaches the high standards we're aiming for as we have looked into every detail and taken great care with both the filming and editing which went towards the final piece.

Evaluation Plans

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?- Discuss how your music video follows conventions. You could give examples from real media texts and discuss how these then influenced yours.(Point out parts in our music video and compare the relation with inspirational music videos, do this by having an interview scenario with the producer, talking to show how she has applied these ideas, methods and techniques- cut to inspirational videos)- Discuss how you developed conventions. Were the conventions you used then developed further or adapted?(Point out parts in our music video and compare the relation with inspirational music videos, do this by having an interview scenario with the producer to show how she has applied these ideas, methods and techniques- cut to inspirational videos)- Discuss how you challenged typical conventions of music videos within your chosen genre. Did you attempt to include other elements to make your product stand out from the rest?(Point out parts in our music video and compare the relation with inspirational music videos, do this by having an interview scenario with the producer to show how she has applied these ideas, methods and techniques- cut to inspirational videos)

- Consider music video theory to support your judgements about your work, talk about the theories and theorists which apply to our video, do this by interviewing the producer talking about how and why she applied certain theories.


2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
( To answer this question we will take images of and from our products and use a voice over to put it together into final cut to make a visual video and audio piece)- Consider the brand identity of your products.
(The relation of the brand identity and theme within the products and our logo etc.)
- Deconstruct your ancillary texts and discuss how you used conventions.
(identify the conventions step by step to help build up the professional look to our products)- Discuss how your ancillary texts reflect the themes/narrative of your video.
(discuss the theme of the the products we have created by identifying strong conventions an how everything reflects)

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
(continue the interview scenario, but from a public point of view as well as the producer)- Gather audience feedback from various sources – eg. social networking, focus groups.(Gather research from a focus groups, have a possible two groups one that is a focal target audience and one that is a non related audience and get feed back from both groups. Possibly have a discussion with both groups together and see how there ideas reflect or rebel from one another.) *show parts of the video as they mention it*
- Discuss the feedback you have received – what worked well? Were there any areas which you need to focus on in the future?
Give this point from the producers point of view, as though we are thinking of new ideas for improvement from the feed back we have received from the focus groups.
- You could also link in some audience theory. Consider Stuart Hall (encoding/decoding).Our theme is to portray the conventions of a strong female character, leading other females through life. We have set the video with a 50's theme to it, which also conveys how females of this age are not always classified as a typical house wife and it shows how female lives have changed over time .
Preferred- This is our theme and the preferred theory is if the target audience agree to our theme.Negotiated- This is if the target audience agree with our theme but also give there own input to the theory.Oppositional- This is if the target audience go completely against our theory.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? 
(use screenr to answer this question)- Consider all of the technologies you have used for all aspects of your production.(introduction to this question using a powerpoint to state the softwares we have used , why we chose to use them and how they have helped us to make our products in comparison to others.)- Detail the exact features of the software you used and give an example as to where you used these in your products.(use screenr to record examples of us editing our work and record a voice over to state what we are doing at each point.) Each question must be presented using one of the following methods:
Prezi- Your Prezi must include images and embedded youtube video to exemplify points made. Make sure you set a motion path so that the examiner can be guided through your answer.
PowerPoint- Make your presentation interesting by using lots of images to exemplify points made.
Video
- Include video clips, titles and images to add interest to your video and exemplify points made.

Level 4 16–20 marksThere is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
There is excellent ability to communicate.

Background Images

We decided not to use these backgrounds because when we put them on the green screen they became pixelated and bad quality.



Likewise, these three backgrounds became pixelated when put onto the green screen. This is one of the reasons we decided to film in the diner because it would looked a lot better than using a background and Jenny would be able to interact with the props and the setting.

We used this background in the music video because it was good quality and was a nice balance between a plain background and the actual setting of the diner. As it looks aged we think it gives off a retro feel which is the mood we are trying to portray.











We used these colours as basic backgrounds (inspired by Beyonce Countdown) for the green screen so Jenny could perform and mime in front of the changing colours. We used some colours more than others as we felt the complimented her outfit and the feel of the music video.

Final Advert with Audience Feedback Imporvements

We were quite pleased when the only criticism people could come up with was to change the colour of the star ratings. We tried filling the stars in red, black, white and then eventually settled on yellow as it worked the best with the red outline, white background and black writing, and is also the stereotypical colour of a star.

Draft Digpak

Again we have kept the link between our main product and ancillary tasks strong to create recognisable brand identity. This is not yet completed in terms of spine covers and information on the back of the CD but the images have all been edited and put in place as they will be for the finished product.

Final Advert

We then decided to give an even stronger link to the music video and use the font used for the titles and credits at the beginning. We are pleased with this as it works well and looks more professional as it gives a stronger brand identity.