A2 Media Advanced Portfolio

For the coursework section of our A2 media course, we were given to the choice to create a music video, radio jingle, documentary or film trailer. I chose to do a music video, this would continue the theme of music as my AS coursework involved the production of a music magazine front cover, this included the design and creation of a contents page and double page spread. With the music video we also had to create a digipak, this would include the album cover, back and 4 artwork pieces along with the CD to illustrate the actual product. I also chose to do a music video due to the nature of relation to the AS coursework, in which we had to develop; the front cover, contents page and double page spread for a new music magazine as mentioned before. Within this AS project we also had to create a new and upcoming artist to feature in a interview for our double-page spread. Due to completing this project I knew choosing to do a music video would aid me, following the previous research I carried out into the chosen genre of music from the AS year, and gave me inspiration on how I could apply it to the workings of my second year.

I believe that due to the use of a mixture of conventional features within my video , I have challenged, real media products with the use of a hybrid genre within my video. Furthermore I believe that I developed my own ideas along with that of the conventions and codes of the chosen genre to create my video.

To allow me to understand how I would create my media product (Music Video), I had to begin research into the chosen media and genre of media text I wanted to install into my work. Firstly I had to look at the conventional codes of a music video and how I could use there codes to help create my own music video. I studied the history of music videos, such as the role of the artist and how they create their image from the use of music videos. For example the artists I used included The Who and The Beatles earlier videos, and how music videos became a important element of the music industry with the use and growth of channels such as MTV. As well as providing me with a platform of looking into the media text of my choosing, the research into the history of music videos also allowed me to look at the use institutions and ideologies within the music industry, for example The Beatles created most of their mainstream image from the use of music videos and promotions of the singles created in the form of short film. Furthermore the images and what the artist stand for can be seen within their music videos.

Once I had a clear understanding into the history of the music video, I began researching my genre and how I could apply the research of music videos to the conventions of my chosen genre. I decided that because we created a the elements of a music magazine for our AS coursework that I would look at the same genre I did in the previous year, in this case the genre was electro-pop/dance music. This time I would change the source of media text from magazine to music video, this change would allow me to increase the chosen skills I applied in the first year to a different element of the chosen genre of music. I chose to do the song Ke$ha-Blind. The chosen song was primarily a dance track, but however had a element of ballad to it as it is a break-up song. Once I had chosen my genre, I needed to carry out research into the media text I was going to create to get a sense of genre conventions and codes, allowing me to research and decide on how I could make my own product follow the conventions. To do this I had to carry out research with the use of music video analysis, However when it can to this I didn’t want to follow just the genre of electro-pop, I also wanted to look at break-up songs to allow me to get a greater understanding of the hybrid music genre I had chosen to create a video for. The chosen videos I decided to look at were;

· Lady GaGa- ‘Alejandro’ (Steven Klein, June 8 2010, Interscope Records) (Concept video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niqrrmev4mA. I chose this for the use of the element of dance, this follow the genre I chose, also I decided to look at this video, as study from the previous year allowed my research to show that Lady GaGa was a strong independent female in the music industry. This was something I maybe wanted to install into the image of my music video- A strong independent woman, this would break the usual convention of the stereotypical break up song in which the woman is left broken hearted. The main codes, I got from the analysis were;- 1. The artist was the dominate leader within the video 2. The use of dark mise-en-scene, created a stronger sense of power for the female role. 3. The use of costume, strongly reinforces the use of female power. 4. The performance in the video. A main convention of electro-pop/dance is the use of high energy, and Performace.

· The second video I looked at for and analysis was, Kelly Clarkson- ‘Since U Been Gone’ (2004, 19 Records Limited) (this video was a narrative video). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7UrFYvl5TE. I chose this as it reinforced the use of the break up song genre and also allowed me to look at the sense of independence in female roles again. Here I also got a stronger sense of the genre of pop which has some similar conventions to the genre of dance music. Furthermore I was able to look at the conventional codes, that fell into the genre of my chosen song. 1. The use of distinct mise-en-scene, to define the type of character role, being portrayed. (e.g. Good/Bad) 2. The use of character persona. 3. The use of Performace (Stage) again is seen in this video 4. The elements of break-up e.g. angry characteristics, smashing of items.

· The final music video I carried out and analysis was Alesha Dixon- ‘To Love Again ’ (November 2009, Alesha Dixon) (Narrative/Performace video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ah9HOWzHKs . I chose this song as I wanted to analysis a love song as well as a break up song, this is so I could look at he conventions of a love song and contrast them to get a opposite effect for my video. 1. A main convention of the genre of love songs it that the video featured romantic settings. Such as; New York City at night, Steam filled parks in winter. 2. The use of conventional close-ups to show and illustrate love between the character (Convention of love) 3. Angelic mise-en-scene such as bright back lighting.

As well as the textual analysis, I also looked at the three types of music videos which are;- Performace (The artist is the seen as the main representation within the video, it features such elements as dance). Narrative (Within this kind of video, it usually has a plot, storyline or narrative, that brings the video together or furthermore tells the story of the song). Concept (A video that illustrates a certain concept or meaning, these videos are usually seen as a sending a message to the audience.) Once I carried out the textual analysis on all three of my texts, I looked at the three ways in which I could use my findings into the codes and conventions and manipulate them to create my music video. The first way, was to look at the use of the conventional codes from my first textual analysis (Lady GaGa Alejando) primarily this song is a dance track, therefore I my analysis looked at the ways in which the video represented dance music. Automatically I knew I needed to have some sort of performance within my video as this would follow the idea of performance in a dance music video. Further more I wanted to capture the use of character representation. This technique is usually a convention of performance video within a dance/pop music video, therefore I began to look at the type of character I wanted to portray in my video. I decided to look at the genre of my song again, to get a stronger sense of the my character portrayal. In the end chose to have a character representation the would feature a break up and would feature the female character after the break up. This lead me to look a the conventions of my second video analysis, Kelly Clarkson ‘Since U Been Gone’ . Within this video it had a narrative of the after a break up so I decided that I would use this idea and create a video in which the character would be seen after the break up. To help me get a stronger sense of how I could create a break up song, I looked at the third video; Alesha Dixon ‘To Love Again’. Due to this video being a love song, I wanted to capture the conventional codes such as the use of romantic setting and convert them to give the opposite feeling, for example the use of bright back lighting would conventionally symbolise love, romance and peace. However for my video I wanted to capture the darker side of the break up therefore could change this to a darker environment such as a urban setting at night. In this case my video features the element of red, symbolism of passion, danger, love and revenge. With a mixture of these conventional codes and my own Ideas I aimed to created a video, that fell into the genre of dance, however also had the conventions of a ballad slightly sewn into the narrative. Initially the narrative I wanted to carry out was a story in which the character was going to be a Performace video in which the character was singing about being left by her boyfriend, this was going to take place in a rural mise-en-scene and focus on the love song stylistics however reversed in a method that would juxtapose the main representation of the song. The video would then become much like the Alesha Dixon video ‘To Love Again’. However due to main problems, I decided to expand my narrative and give it a stronger meaning. The main concept then became the female character finding out her boyfriend has cheated and she plots revenge.

This would also mean the video changed from a Performace video, to also a narrative video with the aid of the introduction narrative story at the begging which leads into the song and ends with more narrative dialogue. One of the elements in which I capture the sense of two break ups was translating the conventions of a ballad and the conventions of a dance track with the aid of creating a hybrid video, for example in the video I chose to use two distinct character roles, one character that would have a sense of innocence within my narrative. However I would also have a character that would be seen as the ‘Bad Girl’ of the narrative and would be seen as the antagonist within my video. Furthermore I chose to use the idea from the ‘Since U Been Gone’ to base on character around (Antagonist), however I chose to break the normal convention of having the just one type of character and merge the two, good and bad creating a hybrid of the protagonist becoming the antagonist. Another element I wanted to add was a clear distinction between the use of the good and the bad character showing a strong transition from the character having her heart broken and the character getting revenge/equal with the ex-boyfriend. This became two narratives within my video becoming one as the story progresses.

To help get a clearer image of what I could include in the video, genre and convention wise I created a digital mood board to help develop my ideas into a solid plan, this included for example; Rihanna’s image from her Rated R album (This helped my shape the independent female character I wanted to install into my bad version of my character), Costume (How the use of costume could help me create signifiers to illustrate character meaning) and theme indicators for example the use of broken glass and shattered mirrors gave me the idea to create a story of a broken relationship and shattered persona’s for my character. I also wanted to create a sense of energy within the video to give a strong sense of the dance genre. To get a sense of the two images of my character I looked at both videos to the collaboration ‘Who’s That Chick’ That features two different videos, that feature two different character persona (Good and Bad). I looked at the ways in which the characters were created so that I could get a stronger sense of how I could create and improve my character personas. When it came to designing my digipak, I looked at the conventional features of other digipak to help get a sense of how a digipak is put together and what the main features are, and how I could include them into my work. I looked at three examples of albums to see how I they are professional create to portray the artist image, representation and ideologies. I focused my research on styles that related to the chosen genre.

My chosen three where;- Lady GaGa-The Remixes, Robyn-Body Talk and Rihanna-Rated R. From the research I was able to see how the artists images where translated through the use of the album. For example with a closer look at the Rated R album, the audience can automatically get a sense of Rihanna’s new image thought the use of the album’s stylistics. This is what I wanted to apply to my own work, therefore I used the same theme from my video when it came to designing it, I wanted to capture the use of a strong female character, yet at the same time give a sense of felinity to the digipak. Therefore I chose to use a bright neon pink. I also wanted to capture the use of the multiple character roles within my narrative within the album cover. From looking at the analysis task, I also got a sense of the conventional elements that I needed to apply to the digipak such as; Artist name, Album name, Artist image, and so on. For the magazine advert, I already knew the conventions of a magazine due to the AS foundation portfolio in media. Therefore I applied this knowledge to the task and began to analysis the three magazine adverts’ which would allow me to create my own advert for the album. My chosen three were;- Mika-The Boy Who Knew Too Much, Panic At The Disco! and La Roux.

Each advert came with different styles due to there different genres of music. By looking at the adverts, I was able to get a sense of how I wanted my advert to look so I stuck to the main conventional codes of a real media product, however for certain elements I did add my own developed ideas, for example the use of the date line at the top, I decided to do this as it would produce a hype about what is going to happen on that date furthermore it creates a sense of mystery. This can be seen in the recent poster for Lady GaGa’s third studio album Born This Way in which it features just a facial shot of her and the release date. Once I had decided on the narrative and how I was going to use the conventions of my chosen genre. I then had to begin create my video and ancillary texts. The type of media technologies used within the advanced portfolio in media, compared to those used in the foundation portfolio in media varied which I will illustrate further. However many skills needed were used in the foundation year. For example to recording my findings research and planning. This method is a lot faster and simpler when it actually comes to the documentation of the coursework, if we were not able to use blogger the only other method of documentation would have been through the aid of paper. Furthermore the use of Blogger.com meant that we could upload other forms of media such as; video, sound and images for our research and planning stages, this also meant that we could document the final product, as well the constructive stages. For the planning stages I was able to us Youtube.com to get the videos I needed for my analysis task. The use of Youtube.com also became part of the overall project as, I needed it to reference product and media texts, while also using the website to upload drafts of my music video and rushes of the editing process. I also use the process of creating a storyboard and scanning it into the computer this method again similar to that using in the foundation portfolio, due to the use of the scanned images I was able to illustrate, and show the my narrative is its basic form. However I then progressed this idea and created my storyboard, here I used Windows Movie Maker to create my anamatic, this illustrate the length of shots and also indicated how my finished product would look. Once the anamatic was complete I uploaded it up onto my blog.

This technique of creating the anamatic, proved well due to the changes I made after seeing the final anamatic, for example I decided to change the length of the shots and the location to follow the conventional features I wanted to apply to my video. Furthermore when it came to the actual construction of the video, I had to broaden my skills due to the new types of media technologies. Firstly, to capture the conventions of that I wanted to apply into my video, I needed to use the stylistic of cinematography, this meant I used a CANON MD205 to film the footage, using the camera meant that I expended my skills within the aid of learning how to create a new media text. Using the camera, at first I found hard due to it being the first time using one, however I managed to adapt and get my filming done. I tried to stick to the narrative I had changed my idea to (the idea of split images within my video narrative). Once I filmed I then had the task to apply the footage to the edit suites we used the program Adobe Premium Pro, this allowed me to edit the footage, this was where I applied most of the effects within the video. For example to create the effect of the characters transition from good to bad, I used the method of overlaying the footage and changing the colour of the bottom layer of footage to red and changing the opacity of the highly layer. This gave me the effect of a ghost track showing the use of the characters transformation. Once I had editing the video, I used the edit suite to export my music video and upload it on to DVD. With the use of uploading the video to YouTube, I can gather audience feedback yet at the same time have a back up copy of my video. To create the ancillary text I used Photoshop and my own camera alongside publisher to create the digipak spread. I wanted to capture the effect that I had in my video the use of the overlapping images to create a sense of transformation. I did this with the aid of overlaying the different images of my artist. I also changed the colour to match the feminine yet bold characteristic I wanted to apply to my artist’s persona. I did the same colour affect to the rest of my digipak and the creation of the CD/DVD. For the creation of the advert I used the same method of creating it in Photoshop with the method of the overlapping the image taken from my video and creating a banner. Looking a the textual analysis I created it with the use of the Conventional codes.

Once I had created my products I needed to gather audience feedback and get a response from my video, this meant I had to create a questionnaire in which I asked people questions to get a response on how I could improve my video and also get a response to the work of my ancillary texts and the video, to see the correlation between them, I created a questionnaire that would, get both a qualitative and a quantitative response. The questionnaire asked questions such as;- Do you think the use of two characters (Good/Bad) is easy to understand ? Why?, This allowed me to get the audiences feedback on the idea of having one character portray the use of two persona. Most of the responses were that the audience enjoyed the aspect of having to two character personas portrayed within one character as it, they also like the way in which I used the overlapping technique to give a strong definition of the transformation of the character. Further more I asked if the audience could see which genre the video fell into, all of the participants correctly answered and I got a 100% successful feedback when in came I identification of my genre, which was dance/Electro-pop. When it came to looking at my Ancillary texts in relation to my video. The main question was whether or not they could identify that the theme of my video through out the ancillary text. Although most respondents said they could easily identify the theme of transformation within the character. One said that they would have changed the colour of the digipak and advert to red to match the video directly rather then use the pink. I took this into consideration and also agreed with the statement. Furthermore I also got feedback of the types of stylistics I apply to the video to get a response from the audience to see if it appealed to them and also if it fit within the style of my genre. For example asked if the use of colours made the video look like a pop video and if they allowed it to stand out, this proved successful as main people said that the use of the colours made the product stand out as a pop/dance video. However they also said that the aid of the red gives a strong sense of narrative reflection and shows the bad character very well.From the audience research I was able to get a sense of what I could change if I had to do the project again and how I could imporve the work.

b To conclude, I believe that the work I created follows the way in which I wanted to follow the genre codes and conventions of my chosen genre of music. With the aid of the stylitics I chose to use and the feedback from my audience feedback that my product sucessfully follow the way in which dance/pop/electro-pop videos are put together and viewed by the spectator that is the audience. My ancilary text's also follow the way the video flows through the use of the theme I tried to translate within my video. From my audience feedback, I believe that the audience my video was aimed at, enjoyed the video and has some critism, yet if I took these into account then I would be able to improve my videso. Based on the skills from AS level to A2 level I believe that I have improved the use of my skills from the foundation portfolio compared to the Advanced portfolio, I also believe I have gain extra skills such as; The use of a camera, The use of a edit suite and the advancement of my use of Photoshop.