Evaluation

For my Advanced Portfolio in A2, the brief I had decided to choose was: A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options: - a website homepage for the band - a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package) - a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package) Along side the creation of a music video, I decided to make a cover for my video release as part of a digipak and a magazine advertisement for the digipak of my video. Before I began making my promotional package, I thought it was crucial to get some secondary research on music videos, cd digipaks and magazine advertisements.

Firstly, I began researching the history of music videos so I could get a background of what music videos were like before, and how they have developed through time. I looked at how music videos are now distributed, and how they was before the uses of the internet, with websites such as YouTube and MySpace, where bands are now sometimes discovered. I then chose which genre and song I wanted for my music video, so when I had decided I could get straight on with the researching. I chose the song ‘Pumpkin Soup’ by Kate Nash, and it fits under the genre of ‘British Pop.’ This is quite different song choice, as it doesn’t fit under one genre, making it a hybrid. After this, I researched the conventions of the music video within the genre I have chosen. I looked at the camera angles used, the structure of the video whether it was performance based, narrative based or abstract.The target audience for my production is the 16-25 age range. I researched the conventions of my British Pop/Indie and I put these conventions into my own production. Also I made sure that the people I asked about my primary research fit within the age range 16-25.

For different types of media texts, comes different genres and conventions, and I have been looking in detail at the specific conventions of music videos over the course of my A2 year. Here are the conventions of music videos in general, without taking into account the generic codes of the video: -the lyrics of the song influence what is shown in the video - the pace of editing fits the pace of the music and mood - and the codes of dress reflect the mood of the song. Also, after looking at some media theories, such as O' Sullivian et al (1198) who suggested theory about narratives for any type of text. He claimed that narratives have a certain structure: - starts off with an establishment of the plot and theme - this is then followed by the development of the problem to increase tension - then the resolution of the plot An example of a music video that has this sort of narrative is 'Drake- Find Your love' He begins telling a man about how he would love to see this one girl again, but we know by the dialogue the man says back to Drake, that there is some danger in doing this. He then meets the girl, which is stage 2, as this creates tension, and then by stage 3 the plot is concluded, and Drake dies. Other typical conventions and forms of music videos are: - Performance – where the band or artist is playing - Mixture – a mix of both narrative and performance qualities - Cameo – the band or the artist is featured in the narrative but doesn’t perform - Animation – the video contains digital features such as flash and stop frame. - Editing- The editing in a video is important as it creates suspense, excitement, and expectations from the video. It also sometimes goes along with the beat, which makes it more excitable (like the Neyo video I analysed for my primary research) - Costume – the costume reflects the mood and theme of the song - The visual images reflect the lyrics of the song.

After finding out the typical conventions, I researched into what genre my video was, then researched in more detail the conventions of that genre. My genre of music is British Pop, and to find out the conventions I analysed a video ‘Smile’ Lily Allen, as she is a main artist in that area of music. The conventions I found for British Pop are: - The Mis en scene matches the mood of the songs, and ‘Pumpkin Soup’ is quite an upbeat, tempo song about love. We associate with love, reds/pinks/flowers/love hearts, and all these sorts of connotations are represented in the video. The main colours used are reds, yellows, and pinks within costume and props. This is similar to other videos of the same genre. For example, Lily Allen’s ‘Smile’ sees many different abstract colours such as red and green clashing together. These are used to create a positive outlook, even though the song is quite negative, with lyrics such as ‘at first when I see you cry, it makes me smile.’ This shows how artists of this genre don’t categories themselves and break the conventions of what is expected in a music video from listening to their songs, as typically a pop song about heartbreak or topics of depression would be matched by a much more depressing video. - The lyrics are used to also effect what is on screen. A current occurrence of music videos, is the lyrics matching what decides to be shown on screen, and this is also shown in the music videos of British Pop/Indie music, but in a different way. The artists seem to go more extreme. An example of this is seen in the Kate’s video. ‘You chat to me, like we connect.’ As the shot cuts from Kate, we then see a medium long shot of her sat on a huge red telephone as she sings this lyric. This makes the mis en scene match with what she is saying, but on a bigger scale. The video is seen more as a cartoon, making it less serious and more enjoyable for the viewer, which is different to the usual Pop music videos, as they are seen as a chance for the artist to show off, whereas these artists do not care. An example of this is Kate and her friend in the video covered in red lipstick. This goes well with the lyric ‘I just want your kiss boy’ and has been done deliberately to create humour. This again matches the main convention of the lyrics influencing what is shown in the video. Another video which is seen as quite abstract is by Lily Allen, called ‘Alfie’. She goes along with the same conventions as seen in Kate Nash’s song. Abstract colours are used, such as greens and blues together, which represents how they break the conventions of what you’d typically see from female artists. This makes their videos more visually entertaining, and also shows how they may not be created for a narrative purpose as they dare to be different. - The artists of this genre also break the general conventions of what would be expected from female artists if you listen to the lyrics. Kate Nash is singing about wanting the sexual sides of relationships in her song which I have chosen, with lyrics such as ‘Whoops I think I’ve got too close, co snows he telling me that im the girl that he likes most.’ and could be seen as shocking to a listener, as usually the males would be seen as wanting more physical contact then women.

Another example is from lily Allen, who wrote a song named Alfie. It is based around her little brother, and has controversial lyrics such as ‘Oh deary me, my little brothers in his bedroom smoking weed.’ This shows how the artists from this genre are not scared to express whatever feelings they have through their music, good or bad, compared to pop music. - Another convention I have noticed from music videos of this genre is the use of editing. At the start of ‘Pumpkin Soup’ we see a sequence that is very abstract, and like I said earlier cartoon like. Cuts are used here to match the beat of the song, as at the start an instrumental is before the artist begins to sing. This makes the video flow more visually, and gives the audience much more to look at. Another use of editing which is common, is medium shots of the artist. This is common in most videos, and gives the audience a chance to see the artist performing. After analysing various videos from my chosen genre, I can see deliberate twists on general conventions. The artists of this genre usually break the mould on what is typically meant to be seen, and create much more artistic and abstract videos to create a positive visual treat for viewers, even if the songs are depressing. Other conventions such as the lyrics influencing what is shown on screen are used, but are created more for visual pleasure than for anything and props are used on a much bigger scale. I have also realised how the pace of editing is used to keep the songs upbeat and positive throughout, which is the aim from the artists. After finding out these conventions, I then tried to incorporate these conventions within my own music video. I chose for my video to be a performance, which uses the same convention of the ‘Pumpkin Soup’ video. I didn’t challenge the general conventions of the same genre of music video well from the ‘Pumpkin Soup’ video, as I didn’t include an animated sequence at the beginning with the upbeat instrumental. Instead however, I did create a sequence of cut to fade shots which gave a little taster the audience of flashing images of my artist before the song initially started. These shots varied from medium close ups of my artists body, to extreme close ups of her lips. Music videos always use a colour scheme, again this depends on the genre. I used this convention as I used seductive and revealing clothing for the same type of shot.

The conventions of each genre of music the video are different. Because my song is a British pop song it means I needed to follow some set conventions, and use features that are iconographic of the pop genre. My video needed to be colourful. I have done this. I have used brightly coloured backgrounds such as pink and white, and made sure some of the costumes were colourful too. When thinking about mis en scene, I wanted to follow the conventions used within the conventions of the music videos I analysed, with a strong colour scheme of different outfits that matched a certain theme of love. For this, I had my artist dress in 4 different costumes, which were all very girly and floral, but also quite revealing, which the song is in itself. The Mis en scene matches the mood of the songs, and ‘Pumpkin Soup’ is quite an upbeat, tempo song about love. We associate with love, reds/pinks/flowers/love hearts, and all these sorts of connotations are represented in the video. The main colours used are reds, yellows, and pinks within costume and props. I decided to follow this convention, which also consisted of huge props that are associated with love are emphasised, like the love hearts on the right picture above. My copy of this is on the left, and you can see how I have tried to pastiche the idea of emphasising with huge drawn lips covering my artists real ones.

Another example of this is my use of the mis en scene matching the lyrics with the song with emphasised props. The first line of the song is ‘you chat to me like we connect’ For this I have a scene with my artist on a bed with a leopard print skin phone, and she is directly looking at the camera talking down it. The misenscene here is good as it follows the theme and colour scheme of the genre, with reds, pinks and whites within costume, set and props. I have followed and developed the conventions of a magazine cover. The cover usually follows a clear colour scheme, and I have picked three main colours on mine which are red, yellow, beige and white. These are also matching with my website. The front of a magazine cover usually consists of the artist’s name, in a big, bold font that is positioned in one of the top corners. They are presented in bright colours and I have followed this convention. I placed the artist’s name in at the top of the poster in black, to make it stand out against the brightly coloured background. I placed a little yellow love heart next to the name as I wanted to carry on this theme of love through mis en scene. The font I used was to a handwriting, girly sort of font, giving the album cover a bit of a feminine touch then just being plain. The title of the single, if I had followed the conventions, would be placed in the bottom or middle half of the poster, but because I have challenged this convention, I have placed it at the top, under the artist’s name. I have used the convention of having a main image dominating the cover. I have used an medium shot of the artist’s face and edited it to make it look much more bold and attractive, to help sell the artist. I have used the convention of having the institution logo at the bottom of the poster as it doesn’t need to stand out. I have challenged the conventions of a magazine cover as I have decided to make mine much more simpler, with less detail of release dates so audiences would have to find out for themselves. This is risky, but also has theory behind it as I would want audiences to research about the new artist and their song I have created if this was released in the real world. I have also included quotes on my magazine cover which is a typical convention, which are black and placed below the single name. These stand out but are not overpowering the image of the artist. The information of an institution is usually presented on the advert too to inform the reader of where they can purchase the music from. I have used this, and presented the I-tunes symbol in the corner. I have done this to inform the audience that they can buy the album I am advertising from I-tunes.

The three texts I have produced; a music video, a magazine advertisement and a website, all work together to promote the artist. I have kept the same stylistic theme constant throughout all three products by using a bright and eye catching colour scheme of red, yellow, white and beige. In my video, I have used red objects which connote love, as well including these colours in misenscene. I have also used it in my magazine, again as a background colour but also to outline images and brighten different aspects of the artist’s face like her feminine top. On the website I have used the same colour schemes. Maintaining this colour scheme throughout means that all three products look effective and are made obvious that they belong to the same promotion.

Over all feedback for all three products was positive and I feel they are as successful as intended. After handing out a questionnaire to students around the college who watched my video and viewed my ancillary texts, various comments were given. A majority of the audience feedback came from females which was purposely done as my video is mainly aimed towards females as it is quite a feminine. 95% of those who were asked, thought that my music video was of a pop genre, which meant I had made this clear enough to the audience and followed the conventions correctly and accurately. 90% of those asked thought my video was effective, and because the 10% I didn’t think I had successfully created an effect which I wanted to. Their reasons for it being effective differed, here are some examples: ‘’what we see on screen goes with the song’, ‘the themes clear throughout, ‘with the artist laughing, her personality comes through well’. These comments support that my video was successful and made me feel I had followed what I wanted to do correctly . The purpose of my video was to be fun and light, and I gained various feedback of how it made the audience feel, as I was worried my video would be boring with me watched and edited it so many times. Most said it made them feel good and created humour. My reason for asking the people I did was because of my target audience, who range from aged 16-25. I don’t think however, that older people would appreciate the song and the meaning behind it, which is why I asked teenagers and not people who may be unaware of the song anyway. Overall, I did feel my audience feedback was successful, but because it took me so long to gain it, I had to rush with results and didn’t get chance to get some feedback on other resources such as YouTube, which could have given me an online view of how my video was received.