Final Group music video

West Hatch High school 16807
Ayesha Bhatti 3018

Lily Badcock 3204

Vasil Nikolov 4240

Group Digipak analysis - Miss Miller

My group compared all of our ideas and individual digipaks together to create one final group digipak. We chose Lily's initial digipak however, chose to include my front cover as it fit the theme and held more connotations. The group worked together to adapt the original digipak by all having input bases on what we thought should be changed or adapted. 

My digipak included several positive elements that contain the wanted conventions of the indie genre. For example, the image of the front cover created a very similar bond with the audience.  The layout of the front cover is conventional to the indie genre as it  uses the romantic theme that we wished to incorporate in the digipak. In this case, the use of flowers for the background contained naturalistic features which are conventional for the indie genre as indie artist like to look like they have connected to nature. Clothing, is also conventional to the indie genre and would appeal to the female members of the audience due to their admiration towards the artist. In addition, the male section of the audience would also appreciate the artist`s appearance as it contains flirtatious elements in the pictures.  The elements used within my digipak successfully represent the artist as well as the indie genre. The image used causes the audience to bond with the artist due to eye contact causing audience involvement. The element of mise en scene clothing, is also conventional to the indie genre and represents the artist in a positive light, appealing to female audience members due to admiration and males due to an element of a natural appearance as well as flirtatious elements due to plumped lips, and feline like eye make up. The overall layout of the front cover proved conventional to the indie genre due to the use of romantic flowers and involved connotations of naturalistic features. The font is included in a hand written style, which causes the digipak to become more personal from the artist, creating a bond with the audience. Lastly, the layout is eye catching due to the colours used as the whole digipak links together however, the group will look at changing/adapting the colours as the pink convey connotations of the pop genre than our chosen indie genre.  

From Vasil's digipak, we chose to adapt the font and the use of the artist's signature. The group found that the text used included a hand written style which will allow the audience to bond with the artist as the font provides authentic and personal themes, which is also conventional of the indie genre. This links in with the added signature on a quote page, causing the digipak to posses more personal qualities and is more important to the audience. The image used is also an element we may take on board as the artist creates a bond with the audience as she looks straight down the camera lense, causing them to look up to their idol. The image used is also conventional to the indie genre due to the use of mise en scene, for example costume as the artist wears a flower crown. This is conventional to the indie genre due to the use of naturalistic attire and also connotes romantic themes within the songs. Although the group chose to adapt a number of elements within this digipak, we also expressed elements that we thought would not represent or promote the album and artist in a successful way. This is due to the mismatching images for example, the front cover of the artist with the outside scenery behind her does not link to the other images including a restaurant and a poker game. The mixture of images and layouts can prove too confusing the audience, and highly subverts the indie genre as attention is taken away from the artist, which causes a lack of promotion.

The elements that Lily used used within the digipak had several designs that conformed to the indie genre. It should be added that they have represented the artist as well. The mentioned segements sometimes fall in the range of themes that have been introduced in the music video. For example, the colour choice such as: red connotate the theme of love/passion. This is conventional for the indie genre, as indie artists like to have themes that either collide with their feelings or highlight the main message of the artist's songs which causes the target audience to bond with the artist and relate to the artist. Many of the elements added purposely connote a range of themes, for example colour choice such as red connoting love and passion, which is conventional to the indie genre, highlights the themes within some of the artist's songs and causes the target audience, mostly females, to bond with the artist and relate to these added elements. The text used within the fan acknowledgement page and song list is used to form a bond with the audience. This is because type written text is used that looks more authentic and personal from the artist and also conforms to the indie genre as features are purposely added to make the audience bond with the artist. Images were added to appeal to the target audience for example to mid shot extra image, as females would admire the effortless yet attractive look and males would find elements attractive such as the make up and outfits. The group chose this digipak as our main focus as many aspects such as the layout is conventional to the indie genre and completely involves the audience for example, the romantic inclusions of the rose on the back page, as a sign of love and admiration from the artist, for her fans.

Within the finalised group digipak, we chose to edit the front cover so that the colours and font compliments the other pages within the digipak however, we kept other elements the same as we believed that they promoted the artist well to the audience whilst conforming to the indie genre. This final digipak appeals to our target audience as it includes romantic themes that females can relate to as well as highlight elements of the indie genre that our niche audience would appreciate. This also promotes our artist effectively as the connotations that appear for example, the idea of love and romance, cause the artist to portray a positive vibe and traits to the target audience.

The artist, Autumn Healy is placed in the centre with the use of a mid shot, which promotes the artist further. This highlights the artist's importance as she is looks straight into the camera lense which causes the audience to look at her, which is inviting and causes a relationship to build. This also causes her to look confident as she smokes and looks into the camera, showing evidence of Dyer's theory as she shows her rebellious side, which is conventional of the indie genre as dynamics are changed. The artist also had back combed hair, linking to this and with a flower crown which is conventional of the indie genre as naturalistic features are included caused that artist to look unartificial. On the back cover the artist is holding a cigarette, this exposes and promotes the audience as she takes up the whole back page, following Goodwin's theory and also conforms to indie genre as habits such as this link to depressed emotions which link to the sound of the music and the messages within, this can link to older members of the artist that also possess the habits. 

The design and layout of the images within the digipak include simplistic sceneries, the background is naturalistic which links to indie genre and also does not take attention away from the artist, promoting her further to the audience and highlights the idea that she is the most important element of the album. The background elements make the pictures more interesting to look at especially the black roses on the front cover however, are still natural and the artist is still in the centre of the images therefore, the audience focus on the artist mostly building a larger bond with her especially as she looks straight at them through the camera angles. The creation of a relationship with the audience conveys love messages within the songs and the roses on the front cover and CD disk as she shows care for her audience and the appreciate this, as her songs and music videos become more personal from the artist. This again links to the front cover as roses are used behind the artist. 

      The language used within the digipak is informal and features everyday language that the audience can relate to. This is evident through her note to fans and she shows a lack of formality and she describes her life to the audience, making it more realistic. The use of this language causes the artist to engage with her audience and the audience would respect this.

      The devices used within the group digipak all connote various messages. The black and white within the front cover cause the theme of good vs evil, an ideology that appears within her lyrics and highlights that she has faced both good and bad moments in her life, and her fans can relate to that too. This is conventional to the indie genre as artists usually add elements that connote a deep ideology. Many aspects are used to make the audience bond and build a relationship with the artist, for example the use of the notebook alongside type written text. This becomes more personal from the artist showing her love for her fans, also becoming an idol due to her appreciation. This also creates a vintage effect that is conventional to the indie genre as vintage aspects are diverse and individual. I have used other indie digipaks to influence me in including the use of vintage filters and aspects and create unique styles. This notebook layout is used further on the note to fans to create a personal element, which also links to the use of the rose on the back cover which can connote love for her fans or even for a man in the artist's life, as roses are a gift that hold connotations of love and passion which covers the main themes within the lyrics, causing them to become the narrative to the audience. 

      To conclude, from applying each individual member's elements that appeared successful within their initial digipak, we have created a successful group/finalised digipak that conforms to the indie genre due to the use of the personalised hand written font, the naturalistic background, inspired by my front cover due to the use of roses containing romantic connotations. These conventions also causes the artist and album to become more unique compared to other artists.

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

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

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3.) EVALUATION: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

3.)  I think its is important to evaluate your work as it allows you to look at your project as a whole and discuss its successes and weaknesses. This can help others understand what I was trying to achieve. I picked youtube to showcase my music video as it is a global site in which you can gain feedback from a wide range of audience from all over the world through their comments they are able to make which therefore causes globalization. The audience comments I received consisted of “good editing, but too much repetition” “great use of effects however they vary too much” “clear and solid

Narrative but parts repeat themselves too much.” As a media producer these comments made me feel as though I succeeded in what I wanted to achieve however, I now felt as though I needed to make changes in order to adapt the music video to appeal to the target audience. I took on board the audiences comments and changed all that they had given me negative feedback on. This included taking out the clips that were repeated too much and replacing them with new and improved clips that I went and filmed again in more varied locations so the scenery itself within our music video is also not too repetitive, as this was the key issue I picked up on out of the audiences feedback. However, although I decreased the amount of repetition included, it still had to take place as I wanted to follow Goodwin’s theory on lyrics matching the visuals and the meaning behind the song is about time over and over again. I also made changes by adjusting the brightness and saturation by certain percentages on clips in order to make my music video appear more professional. This included the clips shot in the park when the artist and her partner are together I brightened it by 30% to make the clips clearer. The effect of this was to professionalize my music video which would then make the narrative clearer to the audience as  they can focus more on the characters and artist and what the meaning behind the video is. This feedback would help me if I was in the music industry as it would allow me to understand what aspects of certain music genres appeal to the targeted audience in order for them to listen to the music of my artist.

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

You need to:
4) Explain why you chose to follow/challenge conventions at certain points - what did you hope this would create?

1.)  My production brief was to choose a music artist and to pick one of their songs within my group and then to create a music video for this song in order to understand and follow the conventions of my chosen music genre and to include within my ancillary texts. I chose the indie genre because it is diverse and different which therefore meant that I could use a variety of different shots and concepts in order to make it individual and unique. My ancillary texts included a digipak and a magazine advert of my artist promoting their music. A music video is a short film or video that is used to accompany a piece of music. Music videos are primarily used to market and promote the sale of music recordings, however some bands or artists may choose to create one for purely artistic purposes. The styles of music videos consist of narrative, concept or performance based. The codes and conventions of a music video are the different techniques used to construct meaning in them. These techniques can be divided into two types; technical and symbolic. Technical being how meaning in conveyed e.g. the way the camera angles are used, different types of shots, sound either diegetic sound or non-diegetic sound, the pace and style of editing and the genre. Technical meaning is conveyed within my chosen genre- the indie genre – as different types of shots portray different individual aspects of the artist, which makes them different and unique from other artists. Symbolic techniques are ways of showing meanings beyond what you can see. For example, through facial expressions, gestures, poses,  and mise-en-scene. All of which are used within the indie genre to portray the individuality of the artist. My finished music video and ancillary texts challenges my chosen music genre as I chose to combine two music genres; indie and the dance genre as the song I chose is a remix of the song ‘Blue Jeans’ from the indie artist Lana Del Rey. This challenges both genres as I had to adapt the conventions of both music genres in order to make them compatible with one another. 


Examples of this within my music video include the use of fast pace editing in the chorus when the theme park clips are being shown with flashing lights which portrays the upbeat colourful aspect of the dance genre as well as showing the artist within these clips which portrays the individuality of the artist conveying to the indie genre. This however subverts the conventions of the indie genre as it usually has a naturalistic theme so therefore would have a more natural pace as opposed to fast pace editing which reflects the upbeat remix side to the song. I chose to challenge indie conventions as I wanted to combine two genres together and by doing this I had to show conventions of one or the other which both conforms and subverts. I also wanted to make my music video unique which makes is more memorable for the target audience which therefore promotes the artist. 

Editing is very important to make the music video interesting. Most indie genre videos would have special effect to either make it run smoothly or to create an effect that makes the audience feel as if they are in the music video. Shots are usually cut either fast or slow to reflect the pace/beat of the music, which links in well with Andrew Goodwin’s theory. It makes it much more comfortable to watch. Effects are usually added over the top of the video to create a old and worn like video. The black and white effect is also very popular as it makes the video very old fashioned giving it a classical and sad feeling. Black and white effect is used within my music video in the performance clips filmed within the bedroom to highlight the sadness the artist is experiencing after a break-up.

Also, within my ancillary texts, such as my digipak the artist is portrayed with a retro feel through the use of roses which links in to nature making it conventional to the indie genre. The magazine advert has specific colours bursting out such as blue and red which conforms to the colourful theme of the dance genre. The indie genre has a huge spectrum, from upbeat songs to slow, melancholy songs. Some indie artists use muted colours to reflect the underlying themes of depression. However, on my ancillaries I wanted to express feelings of optimism and create a retro image so we used highly pigmented colours such as blue and red. I chose to follow conventions of the indie genre through the colour scheme as I hoped it would create a relationship between my artist and target audience as my targeted audience are specifically those who enjoy the indie genre so would therefore appreciate seeing general conventions of the music genre.

Other conventions I have used include the mise-en-scence, more specifically setting in all three of my products. This includes setting of a park - Victoria park. This is conventional because indie genres are known to be quite low budget, the main settings of videos are in parks and streets. This is because these are places that can be accessed easily and they can create mysteries. The setting is kept simple in the indie genre because it focuses more on the artist or their performance. This is good for my ancillaries as it puts more focus on my artist which therefore builds a relationship between my artist and target audience. It focuses the audience more on the narrative and performance within my music video in which my target audience can relate and aspire to. Setting is also conventional due to the fact I placed my artist within the forest in the flashback scenes when her love introduced is first introduced. This creates a romantic and mystical theme, highlighting the artists feeling and emotions, which therefore causes the audience to idolise, or relate to her. This overall relates to my target audience of 16-25 year old females as females stereotypically enjoy the idea of romance or love.

I also showed conventions of the indie genre through the use of cinematography, especially close-ups. This includes close-ups of the artist singing to the camera in the scenes where she is in her bedroom. Close-up shots are conventional to the indie genre as it introduces the star and helps to advertise the star. Close-ups also follow conventions as it highlights the artists talents when they are singing and it also shows their passion and emotion. I chose to follow conventions of the indie genre through the camera shots as I hoped it would create a relationship between my artist and target audience as my targeted audience are specifically those who enjoy the indie genre so would therefore appreciate seeing general conventions of the music genre.

Rough Cut - Miss Georgiou

A rough cut is essential to carry out when creating a final production as it allowed for constructive criticism to be made by a global audience. Audience feedback is very important for our group to gain from the rough cute as this is the stage before we are able to then go on to change and edit things differently in which the targeted audience may not have liked, also, we are able to see if our music video represents the artist image successfully by what the audience tells us. The feedback we gain from this will allow us to improve on our music video in order to create a successful indie music video.  A rough cut is important for my group and I to carry out as it allows for the audience to see what we have put together, and to get feedback to make the final product successful. 

We received audience feedback by screening our production to fellow peers within out media group. By doing this, the other group were able to pick out points that needed improving and things that were successful. They did this by writing on a sheet of paper, giving us 3 things to improve and 3 things that worked effectively. This is helpful to us as the intended audience were for people of their age, so this therefore tells us what the audience would like to see, enabling us to make changes and improvements to create a successful indie genre music video. They gave their feedback on a sheet of paper, giving their feedback in a style of a questionnaire. They told us what was good about our production and what they thought the final product should include. One of the ways in which the audience said we could improve our video was to “good use of editing, but too much repetition” “clear narrative but parts repeated themselves too much” “great use of effects however they vary too much” As a media producer these comments made me feel as though I succeeded in what I wanted to achieve however I now felt as though I needed to make changes in order to adapt the music video to appeal to the target audience. I took on board the audiences comments and changed all that they had given me negative feedback on. This included taking out the clips that were repeated too much and replacing them with new clips that our group went out and filmed again in other locations. The clips we removed was the part filmed in the park where the artist is being lifted up repetively. However although we decreased the amount of repetivity included I did not remove it altogether as the lyrics of the song refers to time over and over again and I wanted to follow Goodwin’s theory of the lyrics matching the visuals. People were able to comment on the video telling us what they thought was successful, what they liked and what the disliked. This let a wider audience have a view of our video, it would also benefit my group and I within the music industry as what the wider audience said to improve, we would do in order for our video to target much wider audiences and achieve globalization, making the artist more well known. The feedback then benefits the music industry as they are able to know what to include to make a video to attract as many people as possible, as well as targetting the intended audience.

The feedback that we received we took all into consideration. By following their feedback from what the audience would like to see benefits our production in many ways. As well as receiving constructive criticism, collectively, the audience gave us three points in which they thought were good within the video. 

Overall, from the feedback we got and how we feel about our production, there are many different changes that we are going to be making to our music video. The first change that we plan on making to the music video is the repetition of some shots. We believe that the repetition makes the video much more unprofessional and unappealing to the audience, so therefore re filming more clips to replace the repeating ones will make it more attractive for the audience and make the audience feel more intrigued towards the music video.
To therefore overcome the comment on repetitive footage we have already filmed some more footage to put into our music video and this should hopefully connect better with the audience due to the wide range of footage we will now how. We plan to have more performance as well so that you can see the artists talent.