My Final Post

During my A Levels media has been my favourite subject and I will miss it dearly. Media has inspired me to work in the industry when I am older.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog and watching my groups music video.

This blog is now closed.

Evaluation Question One

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

The still shots on the left is of our music video but the still shots on the right hand side are of other artists music videos which we were inspired by.

(Click the image above to enlarge it and then you may need to zoom in to the web page)

1. Taylor Swifts video for 'Belong With Me' inspired our narrative and our location as it is set in the female protagonist bedroom, we decided that we wanted our artist to be getting ready and she would be performing in her bedroom. We felt that the audience would be able to connect with the artist because the pop genre is targeted at a young female audience and they are able to relate to the narrative. From watching Taylor Swifts video we realised that the artist performing in her bedroom gained a comical feel and it is also shows social realism.

2. The second frame is from Kate Nash- 'Foundations', the video uses an editing technique called stop motion which we felt would suit our music video. The director in 'Foundations' used stop motion to portray the unstable relationship between the couple. However, in our music video we used stop motion editing to show the fickle minds of teenagers which is presented by the different nail polish colours.

3. Shot three is from B.O.B ft Hayley Williams - 'Airplanes', the use of the projector inspired us to create a similar background for our music video. In 'Airplanes' there are moving sequences of stars which reflects the lyrics well "Can we pretend that airplanes in the night skies are like shooting stars". We used a combination of still and moving images on our projector, though in 'Airplanes' they only used moving images. In our music video we liked that the audience could create different interpretations by the use of the projector such as the purple fields could represent freedom and growing up through the blossoming of the flowers.

4. Our music video is similar to Alexis Jordan- 'Good Girl', as they are both performance base music videos. Also, both music videos use the same backgrounds such as the artist performing in front of a black and a white background which makes the video seem more sophisticated. There is fast pace editing in our music video and in the 'Good Girl' music video, through the fast pace editing we were able to change the artists make up and her clothes which is often seen in music videos from the pop genre.


5. In Alexandra Burkes music video 'The Silence' the narrative and performance is set so that Alexandra Burke seems like she is in a photo shoot, we felt that this made the audience connect with the artist as they feel like they are at the photo shoot. In our music video we wanted the audience to connect with the artist by the flashing lights on the artist in the mid shot and the extreme close up shot. It could be interpreted that the artist is getting ready to perform or she is at a photo shoot.


6. The sixth still shot is from Sia- 'Breathe Me' the photographs in 'Breathe Me' shows the artist in different places in the house and the artists movement. For the seventeen opening beats in our music video we wanted to use seventeen photographs showing the artist growing up, which fits with the idea of time and how quickly the youth of today grow up.

7. In our music video we wanted to show that our artist is an established performer, from watching Keri Hilson- 'Slow Dance' we was influenced to use an iPhone to introduce the song which creates synergy as we used a photograph of the artist to make the audience recognise the artist.

8. In Jessie J- 'Nobodys Perfect' clocks are used to show that the artist wants to go back in time to change certain events, in 'Nobodys Perfect' the clocks are used to taunt the artist and it shows that the events keeps playing in her mind. However, in our music video we are representing how quickly time passes.

9. The ninth still shot is from Labrinth- 'Let The Sunshine' we liked the close up silhouette shot of the artist as it adds mystery to the artist and the meaning of the song. We thought that we could use a similar shot would suit our music video as the heart silhouette has a dream affect, which portrays that love is a desire of hers which reflects the theme of growing up.

10. The still shot on the right is from Lady GaGa- 'Just Dance', in the still shot one of the extras writes on a mirror Dance which fits with the lyrics in the song. In our music video we decided to make the performer write a lyric of the song on a steamed mirror.

Evaluation Question Two

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

Evaluation Quesion 2

Evaluation Question Three

3) What did you learn from your audience feedback?

From the viewing of our music video we received great audience feedback and we feel that we have learnt a great deal from our feedback, here is some of the following comments:


(Click image to enlarge)To get a better understanding of our audience feedback we asked ten people to complete a scoring questionnaire of eight topics of our music video. Lip-syncing, Editing on Beat, Narrative, Colourful, Success of projected background, Stop Motion, Mise en Scene, Enjoyment. Here are the results of our responses in the formation of a bar chart.


Media Audience Feedback

Overall from analysing our audience feedback we have learnt we were successful in producing a music video with precise lip syncing, however we learnt our audience would prefer to have more of a narrative in the video because they were interested to know what happens next also because of the pop genre targeted towards a young females who are able to relate to the female protagonist in the video. At the beginning of the course we constructed a questionnaire to gain information of our audience preferences in a pop genre video. From this we learnt that the audience preferred an performance based video as they enjoyed seeing the artist, however the from comparing the feedback received before the video and the feedback received after the video viewing, we may have conformed to a performance based video too much because it was commented that the audience would have preferred to see more of a narrative video.

The feedback received it was clear that the audience enjoyed the fast paced editing especially of the photographs at the beginning of the video because the shots were edited to the best of the music. We learnt that this was successful because the photographs represented the theme of our video, 'Time'. A girl growing up and the change in time. We learnt that the mise en scene of the video was important to inform the audience of the pop genre. From the bar chart it is clear that the mise en scene was well received by the audience because the artist changed costume and make up through out the video similar to Alexis Jordan 'Good Girl' video. This made the video appear professional along with the studio lights in the photography room of the extreme close up shots. Therefore we learnt how important the mise en scene is in a pop video from the original questionnaires aimed at. We are pleased that from the following feedback we achieved a successful mise en scene. From the bar chart questionnaire we have learnt that our music video was well received and enjoyed by our audience.

Evaluation Question Four

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



Evaluation Question 4 Media

Audience Feedback on YouTube

Whilst receiving audience feedback we have always been a bit judgemental because the people are our friends, so we feel that they would praise our video even if they thought we should change some of it. So we was shocked and pleased when we received audience feedback on our YouTube account 'domemjesskayla', we do not know the person who commented on our final version of our music video which made us feel happy with our work. The user said that our video was "Excellent, very talented, great video, more realistic than the original!! xx", this makes us very proud of our work as this user said that it was better than the original Teenage Dream video, which was directed by Yoann Lemoine, who is a professional director.

Underneath is a screen shot of the page and the comment. (Click to enlarge the screen shots)

Music Video Screening at our School

Our media teachers organised a screening of AS film opening and A2 music videos in our school hall, they invited both A level years and prospective year 11 students were also invited to the event. We were allowed to invite our parents and our friends from outside of school, we found this beneficial as we were able to get our friends audience feedback.

In our media group I was given the opportunity to introduce our music video, which was very nerve wrecking because a lot of people turned up to the screening. This was the introd

uction that I said " The audience were given sheets of paper on which they could give feedback abo

ut each groups music video. The questions on the sheet were: We created our music video to Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. After many narrative

changes we finally decided to create a performance based video. in our music video we wanted to portray time and how quickly youth grow up. The female protagonist is shown from childhood to early stages of adulthood. "

After the screening the were able to get audience feedback, in the video corners that was set up for us. We asked a series of open questions such as:

1) What did you like about our music video? Why?

2) Was the idea of time expressed well?

3) Did you like our different locations? Why?

4) What was your favourite part of our music video? Why?

This is a Prezi that I made of the feedback that we got back from our screening.

Music Video Screening on Prezi

Our Final Draft

This is our final draft to our music video. I am really happy with how our video turned out even though we had many narrative changes, as we all felt unsure about how our video would turn out. We feel that our music video targets our female base audience well through our costume changes, the make up which suits every outfit and our variety of locations such as the projector, bedroom and the black and white back drops. Our video represents the pop genre well because of the bright colours and the fast pace editing, I am very happy with the finished product. I do not think we could have improved our music video because we included everything that we wanted to and we have a variety of camera shots.

Below is our final music video.

Crystal Rox- Teenage Dream

Fast Pace Clock

In our music video we have decided to include a shot of a clock which will be a fast pace shot, we decided to use this shot as it shows how long it took for the girl to get ready. We will include this shot using image in image and we will fade the clock in and out of the sequence. We was unable to fasten the clock to 2000% in iMovie, so we then decided to edit this shot in Final Cut Express because we were able to fasten the clock to the speed to wanted to. The first two speeds was edited in iMovie and the final two speeds was edited in Final Cut Express, the last speed is the shot we used in our music video.

Below is the fast pace clock, the music is from the Rocky Horror Picture Show- Time Warp.

New Opening

Below is our new opening to our music video, the photographs are of our artist growing up which we felt suit our idea of time better. We prefer our new opening as it makes more sense with our video than our previous opening which was photographs from a wedding. The photographs are from all different times of when our artist was growing up, which shows how quickly youth grow up.

New Opening Idea

When we changed our narrative idea we decided to change our opening. Instead of having the photographs from the wedding, we will use photographs of our artist growing up such as, baby photographs, toddler, child, teenager and early adult. Our new idea fits well with time and how quickly the photographs appear on screen represents how quickly youth grow up.

Behind the Scenes

I created a Prezi showing the behind the scenes of the days that we filmed, the photographs are from filming our previous narrative ideas and filming the performance shots.

Behind the Scene Photographs on Prezi

A month ago I went and saw All Time Low at 02 Brixton Academy, All Time Low is one of my favourite bands and earlier in to the course I researched in to there history. The gig was amazing because the band played their best songs and they interacted with the crowd greatly. I was surprised during the acoustic part of the set that they played Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. I loved there version as they made it there own because they used different instruments to the original, this made the song seem more personal and heartfelt than the original. I recommend All Time Low to any audience because they have an excellent stage presence and all of there songs are enjoyable to matter who the audience is.

Below is a video to All Time Low performing Teenage Dream at the same gig I went to.

Make Up Prezi

Below is a Prezi presentation of the inspiration for the make up style and the make up that we ended up using.

Video Preparation - Make Up on Prezi

Enrique Iglesias Concert

I recently went to the o2 to see an Enrique Iglesias concert, the show was amazing and he sang all of his well known songs. I loved that Enrique interacted with the crowd, although some of the audience said that he should of spent less time talking. My favourite songs that he performed was 'Hero' and his new song 'Tonight'. I researched in to other reviews of this concert, the following extract is taken from Ticketmaster (http://reviews.ticketmaster.co.uk/7171-en_gb/777945/enrique-iglesias-reviews/reviews.htm), "He is as good live as his recordings and as well as being drop dead gorgeous he seems to be a friendly, nice guy. His energy is amazing and its plain to see that he is truly passionate about what he does. I love the spanish element of his music and it was great hearing and seeing that played live. The audience were fantastic and a real mixture of people which I thought was great, especially when Enrique came out to sing at the end and everyone went mad." I would recommend anyone to go and watch Enrique Iglesias because he is an excellent performer and he interacted with the crowd magnificently.

Below is a video some one took from the concert of Enrique Iglesias performing 'Hero'.

My Final Digipak Track List

I decided to use the original album title and track list to the album Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. All of the title lengths are different, the album titles are all different and unusual which makes the track list appeal to the audience as it gains mystery to the song.

Teenage Dream Track List

1. Teenage Dream

2. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)

3. California Gurls (Featuring Snoop Dogg)

4. Firework

5. Peacock

6. Circle The Drain

7. The One That Got Away

8. E.T.

9. Who Am I Living For?

10. Pearl

11. Hummingbird Heartbeat

12. Not Like The Movies

Editing Draft (Four)

After many weeks of editing all of our footage we have finally finished our first completed edited draft, this was our first draft where we removed all of the transvestite shots and included our new narrative ideas. Even though we are happy with our new draft, we still have a lot of shots that we need to include and we need to make our editing more on the beat.

We will not have the song playing on the Mac in the beginning of the music video, instead we will have some one playing the song on an iPhone which was inspired by Keri Hilson- Slow Dance. We really liked that when we played the song an image of the artist appeared on the screen, so we want to still have that when we play the song on the iPhone.

The photographs that are shown at the opening seventeen beats need to be changed because we have decided that the photographs should show our artist growing up, instead of the wedding album pictures.

The jump cuts need to be sharper and we will include more cut away shots to make the editing more on the beat.

When the camera zooms in to the Tinkerbell poster on the door and then zooms out of the door, the audience sees that our artist has changed in to a dress. We have decided to do image in image of a fast pace clock with it fading in and fading out. This shows that time has passed and how quickly the clock moves represents how quickly youth grow up in todays society.

We really like the stop animation with the different nail polish colours, during our audience feedback we was told that we should include more colours. So we will include more shots of the nail varnish colours or we will repeat the same colours.

We will change some shots around which we feel suit particular moments of the song better and we need to make the shots more on beat. Also, when Michaela turns on the light we want to make that match the beat.

Below is our first full edited draft.

Make Up Inspiration

Whilst watching Breakfast Club I really liked the extreme close up shot of the girl applying her make up. Also, I liked the delicate brush strokes when the girl applied mascara. Which I then thought that we could create a shot similar to the Breakfast Club scene but our artist would blink, the blink fit with the beat. I filmed the scene on my iPhone and I uploaded it straight from my phone to YouTube.

Michaela's Hairstyle

After reading many fashion and celebrity magazines such as Look, More and OK! we noticed that many celebrities have a natural hair style, though loose curls seemed to be the most popular hair style for celebrities. As our artist has a side fringe we researched in to celebrities who have a similar hair style as our performer. We used Hilary Duff as our main inspiration (on the right) of how to set the loose curl hair style. With the loose curl hair style we felt that it reinforced the girls innocence, we then decided that when the girl is getting ready to go out she will have straight hair to make her seem more sophisticated. Below is a short behind the scenes video of how we decided to have Michaelas hair in our music video. We added the footage to Neon Trees- Animal.

New/Final Idea

When it came to editing our music video we felt that the transvestite idea was too confusing for the audience and people thought that the extreme close up shots of the boy applying mascara and eyeshadow was the performer. We then decided to change our music video to a performance base video which was inspired by Alexis Jordan- Good Girl, this makes the audience can connect to the performer. We have decided to make time the main theme of our video so we can portray how quickly youth is growing up in todays society, we will show the artist growing up by the seventeen photographs in the beginning showing the artist as a baby, toddler, child, teenager and then early adult. In the music video we will show the artist getting ready to go clubbing which shows that she is in the early stages of adulthood, we will use a variety of make up styles, hairstyles and clothes to make the mise-en-scene appeal to the female audience who mainly listen to mainstream pop. We want our artist to get ready and perform in her bedroom this was inspired by Taylor Swift- Belong With Me music video. We feel like our new idea will make more sense to the audience and it will appeal to our female target audience.

Below is the music video to Taylor Swift- Belong With Me which is the main inspiration of our artist performing in her bedroom.

Below is the music video to Alexis Jordan- Good Girl, we was inspired by this video as it is a performance base music video. Also, our location is inspired by Good Girl as we will use a black and white back drop.

We created an animated storyboard of the first one minute and twenty five seconds of the song, we made the storyboard to show our new narrative ideas. With the longer shots in the music video we will change the angles or the characters placement. Creating the storyboard has helped us to create new ideas for shots, for the rest of the music video. We labeled each shot in the story which has the different camera shots and the location of the shots.

Below is the our animated storyboard.