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. 

Magazine group - Miss Miller

To create a finalised magazine advert, my group and I had a meeting where we presented our individual magazine adverts and started to develop our personal ones by using our favourite ideas and aspects from each of our individual magazine adverts. This allowed us to produce a final magazine advert that was conventional to the indie genre and could link with our digipak as well. We created our group magazine advert using Photoshop, which allowed us to use many tools to craft an ad to our best abilities. This way it allowed us to produce a final magazine advert that we were all pleased with. 

My group member Vasil's magazine advert was extremely unique and different, however although the indie genre is all about individuality me and my other group member Lily felt as though it was a little too out of the ordinary and took away all focus from the promotion of the artist and her album. We therefore decided to not incorporate any ideas or aspects from Vasil's individual magazine advert into our finalised group magazine advert. Our group did like however, the colours that were used as they were warmer than the colours of the other choices. Another feature that our group liked was the writing techniques that I had applied as it made the writing more personal for the fan base and the font colour was a lot more readable than some of the versions. Nevertheless, we also commented that the amount that was written was too enigmatic, which would confuse or annoy the audience. 


From Lily's Group Magazine Advert we took the style of writing, layout, background, Artist clothing and the extra information that she had written. We found the advertisement effective as the audience could clearly see the artist as well as develop a personal bond as she is looking at them on an equal eye level. The cinematography used in the magazine advert was more conventional for the indie genre as it allows the artist to show himself and what he likes to wear to his audience. This is why we decided to use her cinematography. We also had a slight criticism which was the added filter to the picture as it made the otherwise bright colours very gloomy. The layout was far easier to understand as it showed to the audience the artist with all of his traits and negative habits. This was far more conventional for the indie genre than my one as it is was easier for the artist to build a relationship. Furthermore, the clothing that was senn in the advert complied with the artist representation. Another criticism that we had was that the colour of the font was too unreadable. This was due to natural black spots in the background, caused by the shadows casted from the tree or the artist and also the blend of her hair with the colour of the font being too similar. This is why we agreed to modify the text by making it white which increases the readability and clarifies it more for the audience.

For our finalised group magazine advert we decided on a completely different image of the artist resting on a tree. This way, the audience could see a full length of the artist, showing the clothing that she wears in order to promote her fashion to the fans that may want to follow new trends. By using this image we were also able to incorporate the text clearly over the blank background of tree bark without the worry of it over-lapping on the artist herself. We also followed the convention of the indie genre which is nature based surrounding the artist. This is conventional as this scenery is free of charge and also allows the audience to keep all their focus on her. The use of the tree in the image gave us space for our writing to be in white as the bark is a darker colour and the use of white would be easier to read and portray the artist as the main centre of attention. 

We kept the artist dressed in the same vintage shirt and floral head crown as it maintained the 50s style we were searching for. This causes the artist to be seen more important however, the effortless look causes her to become relateable to her audience. This therefore still conforms to the indie genre as the artist looks less mainstream and more memorable towards the audience.

Within the image the artist is seen to be holding a cigarette in order to convey her rebellious personality and characteristic and thus still conforming to a typical feminine image. By showing her negative habits this conforms to the indie genre as she appears to be earthly and poses human weaknesses such as the need to satisfy her addiction. This can be relateable to the audience as the target audience of our artist is that of teens and youthful adults of whom would be going through their rebellious years of growing up so could therefore relate to the habits shown on the artist within our magazine advert.

We also kept Lily's layout as it was un-complicted and gets straight to the point with what is being promoted making it clear to the audience that it is advertising the artist and her album making it more appealing for them to want to buy. The idea of simplicity links in with the indie genre as it it used by many indie artists such as Ed Sheeran and Ellie Goulding to portray the idea of purity. The picture used in Lily's individual magazine advert contains the element of nature aswell as the artist is again surrounded by trees and is wearing a flower crown. This is conventional of the indie genre as it contains a naturalistic scenery, which acknowledges the importance of the artist and makes her stand out towards her audience. This results in a positive promotion tool as the audience concentrates mainly on her which makes her more memorable as an artist. 

The target audience of the indie genre would appreciate the magazine advert as many of the conventions we had incorporated in the advert were following the indie genre. It not only follows the conventions of the indie genre but shows aspects of the house genre too as our artists song in combined with a house music  we wanted to add that element too it aswell. These include conventions such as the use of brighter colours which provide the audience with a more eye-catching balance- the bright colours are used on the artist herself which creates a relationship between the artist and the house genre. In comparison, the indie genre uses more simple and darker/dull colours such as the colours of the background of the trees which shows that our advert has a good contrast and balance between the two genres incorporated within our artists music. The target audience is from both music genres, so we had decided to make sure that our magazine advert contains the basic conventions from both genres that can be mixed between the two genres and the two different cultures of audience within them.

To conclude, I believe that our crafted and put together a professional magazine advert that conforms to the indie genre conventions. This is because it uses the correct mise-en-scene elements such as the use of vintage clothes/make-up and naturalistic setting to typically make them stand out from artists in other music genres. We made sure that our magazine advert appeals to my chosen target audience as every aspect and detail of it was chosen in depth and any decision had to be agreed on by all three of us before finalising it to fit the specific appeals of the target audience.

Individual magazine advert - Miss Miller

I have created an individual magazine advert to represent the artist and genre in a way that will appeal to an audience and promote the song as well as the artist herself. The concept of creating an individual magazine advert means that each group member can compare, contrast and then combine ideas in order to create the best quality and most effective magazine advert for or artist as possible. A magazine advert serves the purpose of capturing the attention of the audience to make them interested into wanting to buy the album that the artist is releasing.

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Within my individual magazine advert I made the artists name white and bold in a capitalised font in order for the artists name to stand out and be one of the main focal points, the boldness can symbolise the importance of the artist. The album title is also in bold and a in the same font, this shows that the artist puts her music at an equal importance as herself, which is good promotion for both the artist and her music. The use of the colour white connotes the idea of purity which shows the audience that the artist has a sense of purity or innocence about her which is artist promotion. Thus opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation as white can represent a successful beginning, which therefore highlights the purity and freshness of the artist new in the music industry. The colour white however, subverts the indie genre as it is not individual or associated with nature, this causes the artist to become different to those others in the indie genre which would therefore make them more interesting and thus more appealing to the targeted audience. 

The image on my individual magazine advert is the use of a mid shot which shows the artist's face smoking and the top part of her body showing upper clothing. The use of this mid shot causes the artist to become the main focus as she is central which promotes her artist image even further. The mid shot is at a low angle showing the artist looking down at the camera which could show that she is representing herself as an idol to her fans of whom should look up to her as an independent and some what powerful female. The artist is also dressed in a vintage shirt and wears a floral head crown, back combed hair and 50s make up for example, nude lips to create a vintage old-style look. This causes the artist to be seen as an idol and makes her seem more important however, the effortless look causes her to become relateable to her audience as they may feel as though they can achieve this look themselves. Our artists appearance and overall image reflects her music within the album being promoted as they are both follow the conventions of the indie genre and are both a vintage type of style. The relation between the artist and her music shows the audience that she has a connection between her music and expresses it through the way she looks therefore making her more memorable.

Within the image used on the individual magazine advert the artist is seen to be holding a cigarette. This causes her to seem rebellious and not conforming to a typical feminine image which highlights her individuality. The cigarette links to negative habits that are typically portrayed within the indie genre as aspects of artists lives and usually explored.

The layout of my magazine advert includes the border of roses which links to the indie genre as it highlights the idea of the naturalistic theme and being associated and exploring nature. The use of the flower border links in with the image which shows the artist having flowers in her hair, this could mean that the artist is co-ordinated. Although there theme of nature through the use of flowers, the main focus is the artist acknowledging her importance and making her apparent to her audience and standing out within a magazine and receiving attention, which is a positive promotion tool. 

 The language used within the advert is short and colloquial/informal and doesn't take away attention from other key features such as the artist. This is shown through a shortened date, which can make it more memorable to the audience. Also, the phrase 'includes hit' gets to the point and expresses the successful song to viewers showing the artist's success and promotes individual songs to her fans, and highlighting a successful song to the public, which can causes them to purchase the album as other songs may be a success, also. Lastly, the advert also adds a website for the artist, giving fans an easy way keep up with their idol and giving new viewers an easy device to search and share her music. The use of a website is a positive promotion tool and causes the audience to feel connected to the artist and with each other. 

I used photoshop to create this magazine advert. I had many strengths when using this software, such as creating new layers to make the text and finding colours and the correct fonts that matched well with my chosen vintage theme, and I believe that this helped me create a more successful magazine advert as the text should stand out to the audience and I believe that the text I chose to incorporate through the use of this software is able to conform to the indie genre and make the advert more personal from the artist to fans for example the use of type written wording. However, I did struggle with the editing of pictures to make the font more prominent to overcome this, I would change the colour of the text or I would change the filter of the photo for example, the hue/contrast/brightness.

I overall believe that my advert conforms to the indie genre conventions due to mise en scene for example, the costume that the artist is wearing such as vintage clothes and make up and setting as an example, as artists within the indie genre are typically shown within a naturalistic background. I believe that this advert appeals to my chosen target audience as every aspect was chosen in great detail to make the audience bond with the artist for example, cinematography as the artist looks down at the audience creating a person connection and involving them into what she is doing. Fundamentally, I believe that creating an individual magazine cover will help ensure that my group will produce a final successful cover as we will meet and discuss any positive features within each and how the will be incorporated into one, the representation of the artist and indie genre will be taken mostly into account and how the audience will react to them.

Individual Digipak - Miss Miller

I have created an individual digipak because digipaks are useful in providing the audience with a bonus as digipaks are a special edition album which provides more information about the artist which therefore builds more of a relationship between the audience and our artist. Digipaks differ from a jewel CD case as it includes more of a design within the digipak to make it more appealing to the audience which can include more images of the artist  which are of higher quality. In addition I have created a digipak to give the audience more of an insight and to bring more information across about the artist so the fans can get to know them and their personal life. This can make the fans feel more connected to the audience as though they know them personally along with the meanings behind their songs.

The colours I used within my digipak are to represent the artist as well as our chosen music genre and also to convey different meanings behind our artist and their music. The colour pink is used on my digipak as this is the colour of the roses on the front cover border around the image of our artist. The clothes are also pink in order to colour co-ordinate showing the artist is co-ordinated and also to convey the idea of romance or love which links in with thier music therefore letting the audience in on what the artist is about. In one of the extra pictures included within my digipak the artist is seen to be wearing blue which is the color of the sky and sea so is often associated with depth and stability, as well as symbolizing trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence intelligence etc which therefore shows artist promotion with a positive effect, which also widens the perspective the audience has on her. The majority of the text  within my digipak is white this includes the artists name and the albums name as it helps them stand out and become more highlighted which overall causes them to become more vivid which can be identified more easily by the audience and making the artist and the album name more recognisable or memorable.

The coventions of the indie genre within my digipak include the positioning of the name of our artist which is located on the top of the front cover above the image of the artist which created a relation between the text and the image.The image is posisitioned central of the front cover of the digipak and is a close-up of the artist. By making the name and image a focus on my digipak it emphasises the aritsts importance which makes her more recognisable to the audience as they can put a name to the face of her music. This is conventional to the indie genre as indie artists are unique and by focusing the audience on the artists image and her name they are able to gain an insight into the unique feautres that the artist obtains. Within the image the artist is looking straight into the camera, causing her to look confident and makes the audience feel as though the artist is looking straight at them which thefore builds a relationship between the two. This is conventional to the indie genre as confidence conveys the individual characteristics that the artist witholds. Within the image the artists make up is seen to be natural and her hair has a flower crown in it, this follows the conventions of the indie genre as indie artists are typically associated with nature or flowers. Within some of the images I included within my digipak the iconography of a cigarette is used which follows Dyer's star theory as the artist comes across as rebellious which is again conventional to indie genre as indie artists often confidently express their bad habbits which include smoking, drinking alcohol and taking drugs as this can often be associated with their type of music and what they are expressing through it. This can also be relateable to the audience as the majority of of our artists audience is youthful and older teenagers of whom could be going through their rebellious careless stage within their life. In addition the indie genre is highlighted within the images ifo the artist is seen to be wearing unique clothes that are retro and vitange that would often be associated with the 70's. These vintage elements causes her look and overall appearance to become more interesting and iconic towards the audience which promotes the artist positively making her more appealing towards the audience.


The design and layout of the image includes the use of naturalisitc background of pink flowers to associate the artist with purity and the idea of blossoming as well as linking her to the indie genre. The use of a park and trees within some of the images are used to make the pictures more unique which conforms to the indie genre as artists within this genre typically use naturalistic settings.The use of this flower border makes the artist more focal which therefore highlights the importance of the artist even further, causing her audience to would look at her. The colouring connotes love and purity causing the audience to link these connotations to the artist making them feel as though they know more about her. This makes the audience feel more engaged to the artist as it creates a more personal feel to it.

The artist's name is written in bold, black writing at the top of the front cover on the border of the flowers in order to stand out above the background it is placed infront of. This causes the name to stand out and make it recognisable to the the public, promoting the artist by linking her name to her face.

The elements that I chose to include within my digipak used within this digipak also connote varying messages. I included a note to fans to create a personal element, which also links to the use of the roses on the front cover which can connote love for her fans or even for a lover/partner. Pink roses are used on the cd cover which was an influence from Lana Del Rey which connotes the theme of love and beauty, linking to song titles and the title of the album, as the artist can possibly reflect on her love life and also makes it more relateable to the audience as they may be in a relationship and could find a relationship with the artist through this.
I used photoshop software to create my digipak. I believe that this software had many benefits in order to create a successful digipak. An example of this is the editing of pictures, I believe that I was able to edit pictures of the artist in a positive way for example, changing the brightness and applying filters without making the artist to highlight different aspects of the artist more efficiently. However I did struggle with using some tools within Photoshop for example, applying the skull pictures on to the cd. Initially, I wanted to apply a different image alltogether to fit into the circle however, I found the cutting tools difficult to use. To overcome this, I cropped around a skull face to compramise with the indie genre idea which I think creates more depth as opposed to my original ideas.