Dear Moderator:

I am Cherry Cai, as you could see my name, I am a international student from China. This is the second year of me studying Media Studies. 

In this advanced portfolio, I was asked to make a music video as well as a digipak and a magazine advert which was a new tasks and I haven't done before. In this course work I have done it by myself. In addition, I have developed my skills in using both software and digital technologies in order to produce better products. The portfolio contains five parts: Research, Planning, Construction, Final Product and Evaluation. 

I have chosen Jessie J's Price tag to create a music video for it, because of its positive meaning which can bring positive power to audience. Moreover, I am happy that William is the actor of this music video, he presents professional and just likes a really pop star!

I hope you enjoy my video and blog. Otherwise, I do apologise for my grammar mistakes in some places.

Thank you for taking time to view my blog.

Kind Regards
Cherry.

Question 3

I have gathered all my audience feedback in one video. I have got a lot of positive encouragement and some useful feedback. 

First of all, I thought I had to check the lip syncing again of the video, because some audiences replied that the lip syncing in some places were not matching the views. This mistake made the music video look imperfect. I thought that might be the lip syncing are out of the line in some places but I was going to correct it as soon as possible. 

Secondly, one of the audiences said that there were some gaps between two clips could be filled by some texts. It made the video look full and abundant. However, I do not think I will add some text to fill the gaps, because I think that it can not make any sense if I put some meaningless text in the video. In addition, the gaps existed in my video are very short, they do not influence anything. 

The last but not least, people gave their opinion about which part in the video are their favourite.

"The toys looking left and right"

"William held Teddy Bear at the end of video"

"Children in playground; You show children are having fun which is very good. "

"Lots of coins on the table"

"The man threw the price tag away"

These feedbacks let me know what does audience fancy? What type of things they would like? For a media company, it is important to  understand audience's preferences. In this situation, doing an audience research helps companies to learn audience's preferences. So that I am able to create something attractive media products which are fitting in audience's preferences. 

Question 1

 

I have created a video to answer the question 1. I have mixed different videos (including real media products, my own product) and voice over to illustrate how I use and challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

 

As an international student, I might pronounce in some places incorrectly and got accent. I do apologise about that.

 

Here is my written work, if you could not understand, hope these sheets provided could help.

 

 

Q1 from cherrycai11

Q1. Drafted Answer

Here is my written answer for question 1, and then I am going to create a video and adding voice over.

Q1 from cherrycai11

Music video analysis

I decided to analysis the music video to  British singer Leona Lewis hit "Bleeding Love" from her debut album,Spirit. I chose this song because the video follows lots of conventions as a typical pop genre music. It is useful to assess Genre,Media Language, Representation and Narrative against the video to see how they have been uses together with the micro-elements to create meaning. In this essay, all sides will be analyzed as well as my view presented.

Leona Lewis-Bleeding Love

Artist:  Leona Lewis

Track:  Bleeding Love

Album:  Spirit

Genre:  Pop/R&B

Released:  7 October 2007

Video Length:  4:23

The international version of the music video was nominated for Best UK Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. The US version was number one on the VH1Year End Top 40.

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Genre

According to Barry Keith Grant(1995), genre allows audiences to identify texts specifically by their familiar and recognisable characteristics. The music video of Bleeding Love has highly followed the conventions of pop music. For example, there 's usually bright lighting and some form of bright object/ costume in pop video. This makes the video stand out more and also appeals to youth (the target audience), as it appears vibrant and lively, something young people are attracted to. As we can see in the video, Leona Lewis is in a bling-bling dress singing in front of the camera. The dress is attractive which people will not wear it in normal life. Additionally, the actor in pop music videos are generally young. They are usually in fashion at that time. When audience watch this music video, they will notice actor's clothes, accessory and so on. This can be regarded as one of the recognisable characteristics.

Desipite this, withe reference to Goodwin, Leona Lewis's "star image" and motifs have always been routed in the idea of being unconventional and innovative in order to stand out and maintain popularity and seccess.There is usually a lot of performance in pop music video. This is because a video can not be full of narrative,otherwise they could be boring. They also want to be taken seriously as artist ,so they show themselves performing.There are a large amount of close-ups of artist from different angles, which is used to let audiences remember her. Moreover, different shots of Leona Lewis changes following the beat of the song, which method is used in common pop genre music video. Hence, Leona Lewis plays around with Jason Mittell's idea of industries using genre to sell products to audiences. Many kinds of pop genre characteristics have shown in the video in order to be a selling point, such as fashion clothes, relationship narrative and modern location. It utilised as a means of increasing popularity and profits.


Media Language

Media Language is used extensively in the video in order to support the narrative, representations and general enjoyment of watching the video.

Laura Mulvey 's Gaze Theory obtains visual pleasure. In film, the male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. A scene may linger on the curves of a woman's body, for instance.The female characters in this music video are all wearing less clothes or skinny clothes.Their body shapes can be clearly seen in order to attract male audience. In pop genre music video, female singer usually wears sexy outfits in order to appeal male audience. Thus, music video of Bleeding love has followed this pop convention.

In term of editing of this music video, there are plenty of different kinds of shots shown in the video, such as close-ups, long shots, medium shots, etc. Close-ups are quite essential for a pop music video, which supports Andrew Goodwin's idea about showing "star image" in music video. To be more precise, showing artist's face by using close-ups is very important. Because a music video is used to promote artist and gain more popularity, and a popular singer should be recognised by audience which is the first step to get the success. In addition, long shot provides a full image to show location, costume and performance of the artist. Besides giving close-ups of Leona Lewis, there are also plenty of close-ups of other female actors to allow the audience to see facial expressions, that show tat they are hurt and upset.

This is a R&B pop genre music, which is quite upbeat. So that the frequency of cuts from shot to shot are quick and changeable.

I personally quite like this wide shot below, which looks very  professional and showing us that hearts are breaking everywhere. It gives the view of different places with different people , it shows the theme of this song which is sad and heart-broken.

Representation

Representation is a quite straightforward in this music video. To begin with, sexuality in this music video is used to present cheating things. The male sleeps with other woman and his wife(girlfriend) is so heart-struck. It is the main storyline of this music video. Thus, there are a number of shots shows that male and female are kissing in the bed in a sexual way. It reminds me of Laura Muvey 's' Gaze Theory again, which says male audiences usually pay attentions in female 's body. Additionally, I have to mention voyeuristic which is raised by Andrew Goodwin. Voyeurism is widely used to sell the artist's music through sex appeal. At the beginning of the music video, the camera is zooming in from a long distance and looking through the window, it looks like somebody using telescope to voyeur.

Furthermore, I quite like the last bit of the music video, when the song reaches upsurge, water pours out everywhere and Leona Lewis likes singing in the rain. She gets wet but keeps singing and performing. This part push the whole video to a peak, and it let audiences feel powerful and shocked, in order to make an deep impression. On the other hand, the water is representing the females tears. The water suddenly pours out everywhere is not gratuitously but it gets reason. It presents females' upset and they are vulnerable. Facing the cheating from their men, they feel helpless but they can't help falling love with their men. 

Narrative

The main storyline is about the male gender cheating on the females. In term of narrative , this is a very typical pop genre storyline which is something about relationship between male and female. To be more precise, the music video illustrates that women are forgiving and even though they have been cheated on, they still want a relationship with the male. The plots in music video is quite match with the song lyrics. 'I don't care what they say, I 'm in love with you,' shows that she still wants the male. According to Andrew Goodwin, the relation of visuals to a song is quite important,as giving the illustration/amplification/disjuncture of the song. For example, when the lyric says:"my heart melts into the ground found something true " , there is a two long shot showing that the woman finds a female's underwear and she is so furious about her man. She flings the pants at her husband and cries out. The video gives a good explanation about "something true". On the other hand, the narrative of this video reflects real people, also, it can be said reflecting something commonly exist nowadays. So that audiences are familiar with the narrative in order to get the sense of belonging. 

At the end of the music video, there is a suspense which supports Carol Vernallis says that video may pose questions it doesn't answer. In the end, a handsome young man knock at the lady's room door with a bunch of roses in his hand. The long shot shows that they are facing each other but the door standing between them. The music video just finishes without giving the final result, it provides audience to image what is going to happen the next. In my opinion, the video do not give ending  in order to let audiences have much deeper impression about this music video. The unknown ending gives audiences more space to complete their own thought. I quite like this bit because I think it is very special.

Final Music Video

Inspirational Videos

In order to create a professional music video,I have watched a large amount of real music videos, especially pop genre music videos. This page is used to document a hub of inspiration.

  

Jessie j -Domino

In typical Jessie-J style, this magnificent music video catches mt eyes relying on her perfect performance and gorgeous mise-en-scene( costume, make-up, lighting, etc). The whole video is filmed indoor, although there is no location shown in video, the visual effects are really abundant. In the music video, the singer is the main feature all of the way through. While Jessie J is singing and dancing in time with the music, the backgrounds in effects are also changing with the beat. It makes the video look impressed and entertaining. Moreover, a variety of camera shots are used to make the video present more rhythmically.
I want to imitate this form to present an entertaining music video, as one of the parts put in my music video. My initial idea of my own product is combine artist performance in front of background(like Domino) with some short narrative/story.
I know the actor I am going to choose should be confidence and desire to show off herself/himself. Thus, I will deliberative in choosing the actor.

One Direction-Live While We're Young.



The representation of this music video is really typical as it presents young people as having fun, attending festivals and parties, enjoying their youth and messing around with friends.A lot of pop music incorporates parties and festival setting into music videos to imply the same young feel.
I am going to follow this convention, which is representing a lot of people having fun in the park through imitating one direction's LIVE WHILE WE'RE YOUNG.

Mika-Happy Ending



Personally, I really like this music video due to its editing and fantastic mise-en-scene. This music video is a typical MIKA style music video, which is following his album theme. In this music video, toys are used like people to do the lip sync. This shot inspirit me that props can be used in many other ways, but not only show them in the music video. They also can create some interesting shots matching the beat of the song. Many props in this music video are exactly what I want used in my own video, such as balloons, toys,etc.




Except Mika, Bruno Mars is also widely known for producing pop music. The reason why I choose this music video is because there are a large amount of close-ups of the artist shown in it. Overall, the mise-en-scene (including location, props, costume,lighting) is very simple. But the artist is always the main focus performing in the video. To be more precise, when Bruno Mars is in the video the monkeys are surrounding him and are usually behind him. This also focuses on him as he is singing. It is of importance as it adds focus to the artist which is vital as he is in the video. This is a performance based music video, the main point of it is artist's performance. From this video I aim to take inspiration from the performance of artist and plenty of close-ups used.



From this music I have got inspiration from the location and using a lot of people to create happy feel.

Question 4

Q3.Drafted Answer

Question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I am planning to do some interviews in order to get the audience feedback. I am going to show my media products first, and then ask them some questions. They will be filmed during answering the questions. In this situation, the frist thing I have to do is write down what I am going to ask( my question list).

Here are the questions which I constructed specifically to ask interviewers . I did not necessarily ask every question in every case, or use the exact same wording, it more a case of using questions which best fit the fow of the conversatioin.

1.What did you think of the music video overall?

2.Do you think it look professional ? why ?

3.What did you think the lip syncing?

4.What did you think of William's performance?

5.Could you understand /follow the narrative?

6.What did you think of the editing?

7.What would say is the favourite part of the video?

8.What would you say is your least favourite part of the video?

9.How would you say the video could be improved?

10.Anything else that you'd like to add?



1. What did you think of the digipak and advert overall?

2.What do you think of the star image portrayed in both products?

3.Can you understand the themes behind the video?

4. Would you be attracted to them in a point of sale display etc.

5.What would say your favourite part of the digipak/advert is?

6.What would you say is least favourite part of the digipak/ advert is?

7.How would you say the digiapk/advert could be improved?

8. Anything else that you'd like to add?

After gathering all the audience feedback, I will analysis them and present my result. Although my target audience is 16-20 year group, I decide to ask people from different age group in order to get a more comprehensive result.

Audience Interview(UNCUT)

 

Question 2

Audience Research (video)

This is my audience research video, I have asked a mixture of males and female questions focused on the pop genre and music video in hope to categorise the target audience. From this research I found that most people prefer pop and rock genre music, as they listening to music almost everyday. On the other hand, young adults/teenagers are enjoy pop music more , and some of them are fans of  Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Michael Jackson.  Also, elder people have provided me some brand new information about other music genres and some old band/artist.For example, they like classical music and blue, which are never mentioned by young people. In this situation, I can definitely confirm that teenagers will be the suitable target group for my media product.

 

 

Q2.Drafted Answer

I am planning to use Gologster to answer question 2. Therefore, I have made a quick and brief mind map explaining what I intend to include in it. I have written down what ancillary will be included as well as how they make contribution to my main product(promote artist). The mind map is created by hand, hopefully it can be read.

Q4.Drafted Answer

Before producing a formal answer in Prezi, I have tried to write down my daft answer in Words document at first, and then, the final answer will be put in Prezi which has been improved comparing with this daft answer.

Q4daft from cherrycai11

Final Digipak (including disk)

Please find on this page the finished digipak, including a disk which has also been produced as part of  the product.There may be a very minimal reduction in quality.

The back cover in more detail

Digipak construction 3

The front and The back

I have been editing the front cover for a long time to be honest, but I finished it as the last one. Because I have tried some many different kinds of ways to combine different effect, image and also used many different editing soft ware in order to create the satisfactory one.

Here is a previous product with its creating process:

Firstly, I used Photoshop - Filter Gallery -Glowing Edges to change the original image into this quite artistic face. And then I just put it in the selected background.

 Here is the final image. The reason I did not use them is I considered that if I used this very nonrepresentational face image, audience is hard to recognise him. It is important for a pop genre singer to be recognised by the public, audience is the source of becoming famous. In this situation, I decided to create a new front cover of the album.

Although I did not use the previous image as the front cover , I used the same way to construct the front  as well as using the same photo and background as the previous one. I just chose different type effect of photo editing , which let the face of artist can be recognised clearly. Moreover, I adjusted the size of the original background photo and put them together in a blank layer, giving a different vision. I plan to use the same background shown again and again in both of my advert and digipak in order to create synergy, on the other hand, I was afraid that audience will feel sick and boring about it. As a reason, I jointed the same picture in different sizes so that a 'new' image is created.

The last but not least, I put all images into the digipak template,and my digipak construction was finished.

Evaluation Questions & Draft ideas

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

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

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

Level 4 16–20 marks

There 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.

Here is the initial idea of answering those four evaluation questions, all of them are written in one paper and then scanned it to computer. Hopefully the words on it are visible.

Final Magazine Advert

Final Magazine Advert 

Notice:

Please find on this page the final magazine advert. 

Please Not that when exported to web the quality and the colour shown in the picture shallowed. So that the real final magazine advert is looked brighter and more clearly than this one shown on the page.

Audience Research (Questionaire)

At first, I devcided to create a questionaire in order to do the audience research and get the audience feedback about music and music video.Although there were some problems after giving out some questionaires and I changed the way of doing audience research at last, I still maintain the audience research questionaire as part of my audience task. So that, my audience rearch was devided into two parts, one was questionaire part and the other was video part.

Here is the questionaire I had given out:

Audience research from cherrycai11

And here are some evidenve picture that I have recevided them back:

 

Then, here is the finding document which contain my analysis of this research I have done:

 



 

Audience research findings from cherrycai11

Audience profile

Key Media Concepts/Theory

As stipulated in my Personal Skills Audit, I have to learn and incorporate Media Theory into my research , it really helps me improving the depth of media studies and understand the media area better. Also, through using media theory to analysis music video, it will influence my planning and construction area of this project, as to produce a music video that is similar to a real media product. This  PPT. covers theorists within Genre, Media Language, Representation and Narrative.

Key media theory from cherrycai11

Digipak Construction 2

 Inside pane construction

I have finished the construction of two inside pane before in "Digipak construction 1", now I have finished the rest of part in my digipak. Here is a simple flow chart of the process of constructing this picture, the final image is shown below as well.

I cut the image into square which can be fitted into digipak, moreover, I used another picture editing software which comes from China to create this special image effect. It looks more colourful which is in  coloured pencil painting style. As a pop genre album, the images in its digipak have to be vibrant and sharp in order to catch audience eyes. In this situation, I just try my best to create some unusual art works to put into my digipak.

On the other hand, I have used the same editing software to create some more effect in the same picture.  They are shown below, as we can see, they are still normal even though they are edited. I think that they are not attractive enough as put into a pop genre album, so I do not consider them at last.

In media marketing, I have learned a kind of marketing method called"synergy". In term of synergy, I want to combine this image with the album front cover background( as well as the back background and the disc cover) I design them all in the same background because I want to reinforce audience impression again and again by seeing them ceaselessly.

This is the final image I have created, I think I have tried to make it look comfortable and special. Although I don't think that everybody can accept this is a good image, I still maintain to put it into the digipak. Because there are too many pop singer exist now, promotion and marketing method are becoming more and more important for a singer getting famous. Therefore, this image will be as one of the inside pane image.