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

My group member Beth answered this question, as we chose to share the evaluation between the group. She's answered the question as a blog post and has pinpointed what conventions from the pop music genre we have conformed to in our video. She's also included stills from our video to denote where conventions are followed.

• The first typical pop music convention that we have used is product placement. During research, we noticed that many leading pop stars make use of product placement during their videos, for example we noticed artists such as Jessie J, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj all use product placement in many of their music videos. I believe this is a convention of pop music because pop artists have the power to be highly influential in their videos and give their fans an insight as to what brands and logos they support.

• The next convention that that audience will see is a main one that appears during the whole video - performance. Pop music videos tend to be performance based, more so than a narrative, as the lyrics in our chosen song are quite repetitive, as a group we decided it would be more effective to base the video on performance, in order to give the audience something else to focus on and enjoy. The inspiration for this came from the original 'Domino' music video, the entire video is performance based, and is therefore a pre set success.
• Soon after, we see the character have an outfit change, as well as a change in the location. This is a pop music convention, as it can also be identified in other pop music songs including;Domino, Hot n' Cold, and Call Me Maybe. This convention is used so that the audience have something to keep them drawn into the video, also the settings are key in creating the illusion of the atmosphere of the music video.
• The next main convention that appears next is the use of an extreme close up of a facial feature, such as eyes or mouth. In our video we have included a close up of the character's lips, to connote phallic imagery, to conform with Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory. This is conventional because it can be seen in other pop music videos where the artist has been made to look seductive, for the pleasure of a male audience.

• Pop music videos are usually fast paced and upbeat, conforming to this convention,Domino is a fast paced song. Conventionally the cuts in the video must change with the beat. We have conformed to this in our music video, in order to please our target audience. Especially towards the end of the song, as the pace of the song increases, the cuts rapidly increase, so that the video works well with the song.
• Typically in a pop song, the bridge has a slightly different tone to the rest of the song, to compliment this, the video must have a different image to accomodate for the difference in the tone, even when it is for a couple of stanzas. In our video we have changed the setting of the video, to conform to this convention. The bridge can be seen as low lkey lighting, and a slightly more serious image than the rest of the song. The main image of the rest of the song soon resumes after the bridge.

Overall, our finished product conforms to pop music video conventions, as it would be expected to. We have done this in order for our target audience to be pleased with our video, and see the conventions they would expect to see when watching a pop music video.

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

My group member Amy answered this question, my group shared the evaluation questions answering one or two questions each. Amy has created a Prezi to answer this question. I've embedded the Prezi below.

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

To answer this question I've chosen to use the online timeline website called TimeToast. I've created a timeline that shows all the new and different forms of technology I have used through out this piece of coursework. Using a timeline was effective for this question as it makes it easy to see all the different forms of technology I have learnt to use over the time span of this project. I also chose to use TimeToast because is more creative and appealing to reader the information in an interactive unique format rather than a long written blog post.






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Evaluation - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I chose to answer this question by using an online mind map, created on the website Bubbl, I have embedded the mindmap below. I chose to use a mindmap to answer this question because it is an easy to read and well organised as well as interesting to look at. Also I've never used Bubbl and I wanted to try presenting my work in a new and creative format.

Digipak Promotional Magazine Advert

Rough design:

Above is a draft drawing of the design for the digipak promotional magazine advert. I've drawn out the design and embedded it above. Going through this design process is key was it allowed me to visualise lots of different layouts for the digipak and then choose the most suitable design. Also planning how my group wanted the digipak to look before hand makes it easier to create the final product.

Final design:
Below is an image of the digipak promotional magazine advert I have created for my group. I've used Photoshop to help with this task. I aimed to create the promotional advert with the same motif as the digipak. Doing so makes the digipak easily related and associated with the advertisement. I've used the front panel image and the same text from the digipak in the magazine promotional advert.

Like most convetional pop digipak promotional adverts, I've made sure to include key text related to the digipak and singles on it. I've also listed where the album can be purchased and when it will be available to buy. Both these features are typical of pop digipak promotional adverts.

The promotional advert has drawn inspiration from Jessie J's promotional advert for one of her albums. I've included an image of her advert alongside our advert to denote the conventions our advertisement follows.

• On the left is Jessie J's promotional advert which features a simple bold font differing from the album font, which is something included in my groups advert too.
• Also the album cover image is the main focus of the advert. 
• The advert includes images of her record label and has a link to where her digipak can be bought
• The text on her advert follows the same colour scheme as the text from the front panel of her digipak    

Below is an image of my groups final promotional magazine advert.

Final Music Video

Below I've embedded my groups final music video for 'Domino'. My group members Amy and Beth focused on filming and editing the video, whilst I created the digipak and digipak promotional advert. We decided to share the two final tasks this way to get them both done by our deadlines. Also my group members Amy and Beth have had past experience creating a music video and I have previously used Photoshop to create products similar to a digipak. So, we felt that sharing the workload this way allowed us to take advantage of our strengths and create the best products possible. Beth had the role of being the main star in the video, Amy was filming, and both of my group members focused on editing and creating the final product.

My group members aimed to create a conventional pop video including as many conventions of the genre as possible. For example they made sure the video had numerous outfit changes, product placement, extreme close ups such as Beth's mouth and eyes and the male gaze.

Final Digipak

From looking at the front panel, and asking for peer feedback my group decided to change the image on the front panel. The initial image on the front cover looked too happy and lighthearted not reflecting the album name 'Uneducated' well. It's conventional of pop digipaks to have an album name and an image related to the albums name and it's theme. So my group chose another picture to use on our cover, which connoted our artist looking more rebellious and playful, reflecting our digipak name better.

Below is a screenshot of the edited final digipak, with the new cover image. I've also embedded a video I created with QuickTime on the computer of me editing and changing the album cover image on the digipak.