Katerina

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product is a primarily pop genre music video. I have represented my chosen genre by typically keeping within the pop stereotype of the artist running around and having a good time. I used comedy value to do this, which was the use of the dog costume and creating a narrative around that character as being someone who wants to break free from the endless boring cycle hes got himself into. This is relatable to the target audience through uses and gratification theory escapism because everybody wants those 5 minutes to get away from reality and do something they wouldnt usually do. A few music videos that inspired me greatly to create my own music video was Bat For Lashes Whats A Girl To Do and Coldplay Paradise. I liked the element of fantasy and how they humanised the animal and wanted to mimic this with my own unique ideas and storylines. In my music video the song I chose is a hybrid of RnB and electronica within my music video, this made me challenge those typical conventions, which are usually to sexualise women and emphasise on male dominance over women such as 50 Cents 2005 song Candy Shop. There was none of that within my music video because due to the majority of my target audience being 14+, this would not be appropriate or relatable to them. My music video will be played and be able to be played during all hours of the day on TV as it complies will all the rules and regulations set by the ASA. Within my CD digipak panes and magazine advert the same conventions apply, pop was the predominant genre conventions being shown as this is in keeping of what my music video represents, so it keeps the audience in the know and keeps everything consistent with each other. Typical pop conventions are that everything is bright in colour a lot of movement and excitable dance routines and people. Through research I discovered that Coldplay Paradise is extremely similar to my music video as they both have animals escaping and going on an adventure but in very different ways. In this screen shot it shows the elephant behind bars and wanting to escape and be on an adventure, so although they show it in different ways my dog also wants those things, he feels mentally trapped by society not to go on adventures whereas the elephant is literally trapped. Pop genre always tries to relate its audience and most audiences to feel special and escape from their real world. Typically most conventions have a sad beginning a way to get out of it in the middle and a result or triumph at the end. Within this music video I feel that this complies with those typically pop conventions extremely to the point. Again much like my video we use a lot of the same shots. In this screen capture on the right they have used a panning shot to add pace and show fast movement, much like we do. This just keeps the work excitng and keeps the views intregued to let the animal take you on an adventure. Again showing examples of uses and gratification escapism. Convention of a pop video. The way they have edited together all the different shots is very clever and unique and I feel I have done the same. The shots are primarily short jump cuts to again show pace, movement and adventure but to also make the time move

Katerina faster so you can miss bits that arent important, for example when the elephant is on the train to heathrow aiport you dont see the whole journey you see very fast movement which looks like the window of a train looking outwards. This is sped up and then he turns up at the aiport. I have a similar shot where the dogs eyes slowly shut and the screen goes black and then his dream begins which is in IKEA, then wakes up after the scene is done. Overall I feel Ive not only complied but Ive challenged the typical conventions of the genre pop and electronica. I used uses and gratification escapism theory much like the Coldplay video but instead of it being a happy ending the dog character rushes back to where the video began and back to reality, really humanising the character further as the character is being brought back to reality at the same time the audience is too, its almost infectious to watch again and again. Electronika as a genre is renouned for its jump cuts and fast paced movement throughout each video, I tried to apply this as much as I could but as the song was mainly pop and had a lot of pop qualities cutting each shot to each beat was difficult at times but I think I added enough there to keep up with the elektronika genre.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I have created narrative theory in my music video with the use of Todorovs equillibrium theory. The equillibrium being the dog is in a dead end boring job handing out leaflets which he does not want to do, then the dis-equilibrium hes finally had enough torture and goes on an adventure around Brighton and finally starts to live an exciting life and finally the new equillibrium the dog realises the time and has to head back to reality and get back to his boring day time job. This type of music video links well with the pop genre as typically there is always todorov equillibrium theory used as it is easily relatable and will humanise and personalise this to the majoirty of its target audience. My three products; Music video, CD digipak panes and magazine poster are all related and well connected to eachother. They are all on Brighton pier, they all have the same typography and colour scheme so it can become iconic to all of my products and media texts, this adds to the continuity and runnig theme overall. The typography is all Rockwell and the colour scheme is dark red, white, black and beige. They all also feature the main character which is the dog, so it would be hard with all of those similar elements not to relate them back to eachother. Firstly Brighton pier not only is this an iconic peir to the UK but for my overall products it adds a campaign and a subconscious of each product constantly reminding you of each ancillary task. Again I stuck to the typical pop conventions and used comedy throughout the ancillary tasks to give a sneak preview of what the music video is about. On the CD digipak the left inside pane is one element of comedy I added, having the dogs face in a face in the hole of a bride and groom. Another comedy convention is again on the CD digipak we had a canted shot of the dog lying down, watching the waves, it is romantic which also goes with pop convention but because the dog is by himself you cant help but laugh and pitty him, which is exactly how I want you to feel before you watch the video. This again makes him relatable because even though you pitty the dog you know that sometime in your life youve felt the same as him. This is an example of uses and gratification personal relationships and personal identity.

Katerina A real pop genre example of a CD digi-pak is Justin Bieber Under The Mistletoe (2011) album. This digi-pak is a good example of how a running theme throughout makes the CD easy to look through and understand what its about this being a christmas album. Justin Bieber had a newly released film and album out that year (film: Never say Never, album: Never Say Never The Remixes) it was easily identifiable throughout them all as the music videos released from his christmas album all had christmas themes running throughout and the movie ancillary products had the purple colour scheme throughout and the fact the Say is white in both front covers (the CD front pane and DVD front cover). This is what I feel I have created from my ancilary products as well as the music video, there is a running theme which is now easily identifiable between eachother. These each compliment and sell eachother by making them connected to one and other much like Ive done in my own products.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My primary research for the music video shows that the audience enjoyed and understood the comedy aspect of the video. Also in the questionnare I asked the question How did the video make you feel? and the majority of people said that it made them feel happy, which is exactly what I wanted as I stated before this video was set to be a part of escapism and the fact it made 100% of the audience that partook said it made them feel happy, confirmed this theory. Through my research of my album panes I asked a series of questions relating back to the overall colour scheme, typography, relatability and continuity. The results were very pleasing and informative, the majority of the people asked liked everything they had seen with a few pointers to make my CD digi-pak perfect. When asked Do the album panes and advert work together as a campaign?' 100% of the qustionnees answered yes same with the question Does the colour scheme of the album panes suit the conventional genre (pop)?, Would you agree that there is a consistent theme throughout? and Is each album pane appealing and does it stand out to you? this shows that through research I have successfully created a pop hybrid CD digipak appealing to my TMG. Another question asked if my album panes and advert work well together as a capaign and the general response was yes it is, an example of an answer is Yes because of the use of the character, settings, typography and colout throughout. Finally the question Is each album pane appealing and does it stand out to you? and a response was Yes, the character throughout, thematic, fairground os fun and exciting it relates to video of the fair and adult fun in IKEA. As a whole I received a massively well received response, with a few constructive poitners. Again another primary research I completed asking a series of questions about my albums magazine advert. 100% of the TMG said that the magazine advert was eye catching, informative, all related back to the pop genre conventions, easily readable and that there is a clear link between all the ancillary tasks. This shows that i have applied all of what the typical genre conventions ask of me and what I wanted to achieve from all of my overall products.

Katerina

4. How did you use new media technoligies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In my planning and research, pre-production and post-production I used the Macs which allowed me to screenshot images of my work and show my progress of what I had done. To complete and obtain research for my pre-production coursework I used google to search for different information I needed and whenever I found it I logged onto microsoft word or powerpoint to re-write and organise it. I also used other technologies such as a scanner, iMovie, FinalCut and LiveType which was used for my pitch along with the editing of my music video. To upload my movie onto finalcut I had to upload it onto iMovie and import it from there onto FinalCut. I had a lot of experience of this before A2 but I had to expand my researching techniques as it was difficult to find certain things and understand things. Websites on web 2.0 I used was blogger, wikipedia, imdb, google and bing. Again I used microsoft word for my planning section of the courework, which I am very much used to doing as I did the same thing for my AS level pre-production planning coursework. Other technolgies used for planning was a still camera for the recces, scanner to upload and scan the storyboard. For the production of my products I used a still camera and a video camera to capture the music video and different still shots for the magazine poster and CD digipak panes, a tripod was also used to capture clear and steady shots. Some of the softwares used after it was filmed/captures and uploaded I used finalcut to edit it together, livetype to add the opening text and end credits, photoshop to edit together and finalise the ancillary tasks and finally garadgband to add non-digetic sound. Finally for this evalutation microsoft word to type it up was used and to capture the screen shots I used youtube. In my evaulation I recorded a voice over of my question 1 and 2 in the recording studio using the software Cubetek, which I then exported onto my USB to edit on FinalCut on the Macs.