Evaluation

After finishing the brief we completed 4 evaluation questions which gave us the chance to look through all the work we have produced in the first half of A2 media. After completing the coursework we are now looking into The Phone Hacking Scandal as well as other wrong-doings of the press; and then moving onto films that have caused controversy, for example The Human Centipede.

Magazine Advert

After creating the video and digipak, I researched brand identity. I wanted brand identity to be a strong influence for the digipak and the advert, but because I was creating advertisement for an album it didn't need to directly relate to the music video. Yet we still used the actress from the video for the images. Once again I researched both the generic and genre specific conventions to find background research of magazine adverts and to see what I needed to include.


As well as looking into conventions, we also researched previous adverts produced by students.


Before creating the final magazine advert we received feedback from the class which helped me see the advert from someone else's prospective.

The Digipak

The brief for the digipak was - 

We have to promotion package for the release of an Digipak and this has to include;
•A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package)
•A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package)

The digipak will include between 4 and 6 sides, including front cover, reverse cover, spine and disk impression.

Like the music video, I started the process of the digipak by looking into digpak conventions, both generic and genre specific. This enabled me to find out what artists and bands include in their digipaks as well as what audience members like to see.  

Generic Conventions of Pop Digipaks 

I looked into previous digipaks from Taylor Swift albums to see what conventions she uses or follows, as well as researching previous student digipaks and how they compare to the originals. This helped show me what other students have achieved and challenge me to do better. For the final digipak I decided on a simple but effective design. I followed the conventions of there being a photo of the artist on the front, making sure the photo has a strong photography aspect. I used a black, white, red and pink theme throughout the digipak which catches the audiences eye.

Music Video

After months of filming and editing the video, finishing it was a relief but I was also sad for it to all be over. I was really happy with the final video as it meets most and challenges few conventions of the pop music genre. We received plenty of positive feedback which made me proud of what we'd achieved.


After going through the process of creating a music video, I now know what I would do differently, and the knowledge of the sites used will allow me to use them to a better advantage next time. Even though I like the video we created, if I were to do it again, I would have challenged myself more. Especially with the editing; and I would definitely use a different song from a completely different genre as the pop genre has its limitations because of the young target audience.

Filming

Before we set out filming we completed a detailed risk assessment in order to protect ourselves from the risk of filming, especially as horse riding was involved which could of ended badly. We spent roughly 3 months filming for the video, with multiple takes of the smallest parts in the video. Throughout the process my parter and I enjoyed filming, and editing the many clips together and finally the feeling of relief when finishing the piece.

Risk assessment 

Throughout the process we received feedback from our media class which allowed us to edit the video to other peoples preferences other than our own. Having the view of other people really helped with the process.

Target Audience

After looking into music video conventions we began breaking down target audience. This included researching secondary target audience, which gave us insight to what target audience look for in Taylor Swifts videos as well as the type of people attracted to her music. Primary target audience included looking into interviewing and creating a member profile as well as taking a social class test from the point of view of our audience. This enabled us to find out what our viewers enjoy watching as well as the content we should aim to include in our music video. We discovered that our target audience was late teens and primarily female, this allowed us to understand that we need to create a music video that is slightly edgy, in order for it to attract teens. As the target audience is so young we decided on using teenage actors, in a hope that the audience will then relate. We auditioned several people for the roles and then settled with a good looking male and female who were happy to film on call and have a good time filming.

First steps

In order to create a music video I needed to look into the target audience and both generic and genre specific conventions. This allowed me to create a piece that meets the conventions and also appeals to the right people for the genre.
For the music video I worked in a pair, this helped get the work done quicker but to a better standard as the two of us worked together on most of the items produced. We collectively decided on creating a pop music video and using the song 'Red' by Taylor Swift, this song isn't as widely known as her others and it also doesn't have a proper music video to accompany it, this allowed us to create a video that wouldn't imitate one she has already produced for the song.


After creating storyboards for the first ideas for the music video we started to look into the conventions of music videos as well as those of the pop genre. This gave us insight to other music videos both in the pop genre and other mainstream genres. For most of the work we produced we used the presentation site Prezi. This enabled us to show information in an interesting way as well as using a trustworthy site that was easy to navigate. We also produced a lyric breakdown which helped us know what to film and also when editing we knew what clips to put where.

Brief

I have created this blog to show my development through A Level Media, as well as involving some of my work in Photography and Art. I will show the production through to the exhibition of my final piece.

For my A Level in media we were given 3 Briefs in which we had to produce - 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 digipak for the album’s release;

• a magazine advertisement for the digipak.

 So in conclusion we had to produce a music video, which also included a digipak and magazine advert.