How did you use media technology in the construction; and research and planning stages of your music video?

Media technology was the key foundation to the production of our music video. Each time we filmed or worked on our video a media technology was involved through the process. From the cameras to the iMacs, media technology plays a vital role in the development of our music video.

Construction

When creating our video, media technology was our key material. Using the camera and tripod allowed us to film and develops our video during the first stages of our task, resulting to steady filming. The tripod permitted us to work quickly ans effectively with a creative flow to the task. Once we finished our filming our next stage was to upload our filming onto the iMacs. The iMacs were used constantly, during our lesson times and our free periods, therefore iMovie software helped us to gain a successful result. The iMac did not just aid us with our filming, but also with the creation of our music and song. This great technology helped us record our song, which later made it easy to upload to our video as it was all in one programme.

Research

Media technology facilitated my research when constructing my video. I used technology e.g the internet to study different 'RnB' videos, and the genre on a whole in order to inspire me. The internet, an increasingly vital tool in today's society, provided me with a great amount of information which aided me to plan my promo video. I carried out some of my research through questionnaires, and this was made on a laptop, once again technology playing a part in my research. Therefore technology plays an important part in my research as if it wasn't for technology I would not have been able to successfully carry out as much research as I have. I beleive it is the research stage is the most crucial part as it reflects on your final result.

Planning

When planning our music promo video technology helped to make this stage easy. We began planning our storyboard and later scanned our documents. This enabled us to gain audience feedback where we was able to collect different views and take on suggestions people made. We also spent a lesson on the reknown software 'Garageband'. This specific planning stage was not as successful for our group as we did not choose any of the songs provided on the software, however this is not to say the software did not give is ideas for our very own song. Technology was important when planning as it helped our group acquire different ideas with the use of uploading our beginning plans, e.g. the start of our song in order to gain audience feedback.

Representation in our music promo video

In this lesson we made a table on exactly what we wanted to represent and how we represented it in our music video. Here are the idea I came up with:

What did I want to represent?

1. Typical teenage love story/issues
2. Past and present memories
3. Meaningful lyrics
4. Non-conventional 'RnB' stereotype of women
5. A timeline feel
6. Portraying modern technology

How did I represent it?

1. Through the setting, mise-en-scence, narrative, storyline, choice of clothing and urban shots we successfully managed to replicate a typical teenage love story.
2. We represented the past through the black and white clips and depicted the present through the coloured clips.
3. Our lyrics we made up link into our storyline and therefore meaning is given to the lyrics as they are easily understood by the audience.
4. We worked against the typical stereotype of women in today's 'RnB' videos. Our protagonist is not represented in a sexual way, but in a more modest manner. There are no parts of our music promo video where we see Sarah showing off her body in a porogative way.
5. We were able to productively create a timeline feel to our music promo video by applying the photo album effect on the iMacs.
6. As many 'RnB' videos today typically portray the latest gadgets in their videos, we decided to represent some in our video. We have included clips of a most recent phone being shown and a car.
   

In what ways does your music video and digipak use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Before commencing on our music video we had to do some thorough research into our chosen genre. I watched several different 'RnB' music videos, and compared the similar features. Researching typical conventions of an 'RnB' music video allowed me to gain a clear understanding of what exactly is required. When beginning our storyboard, we tried to embed similar shots that are used in 'RnB' music videos, and most of all a typical storyline in order to follow the conventions. This was all successfully acheived, as we were able to depict what we wanted to represent in our videos. Aspects of our music video evidently challenge the conventions of a archetypal 'RnB' video. We present a typical storyline but different to that of todays 'RnB' music videos, as we do not put across half naked women or film in a grand mansion. This does not mean to say we challenge the genre throughout our music video, features of our video do use the conventions of an 'RnB' video. This is seen through the choice of shots, the storyline and the use of technology e.g. latest mobile phone.

When beginning the ancillary task for our very own design of a digipak, I also carried out some research on 'RnB' digipaks. This aided me to get ideas when developing the design of my digipak as I was influenced by different digipaks. It can be argued the design of my digipak challenges the conventions of 'RnB', as most female artist tend to use a picture which is revealing to audience. However, I have not used an image likewise, but one where a female is covered up when compared to Rihanna, Beyonce or Mariah's album covers. The font choice develops the conventions of an 'RnB' album cover. Many female 'RnB' artist today typically portray their names in italic on their album covers to depict their feminine side and therefore I have followed this convention and developed it into my own digipak design.

Results From Questionnaire

After giving out my questionnaire to several people and posting it on "Blogger" and "Facebook", I have finally collected the results and successfully graphed them. Overall 20 people answered my questionnaire.Evidently from the graph above most people beleive the front of an album cover is very important. This shows when producing my own album cover I have to make sure the front of the album cover is reflective and stands out as 11 out of 20 people have noted it is the key feature of the album.

From my collected data, I have found "A colourful and detailed album cover" appeals to most people rather than "A black and white album cover". Therefore, I have decided to produce my album cover in colour and not just black and white as this will evidently appeal to a wider range of audiences.

The results from "Which camera shot do you beleive is more attractive?" has influenced me to use a full body shot for the production of my very own album cover. "A full body shot" appealed to 12 out of 20 people whilst a "Extreme close-up shot" only appealed to one person. This maybe because a full body shot is more attractive and allows the audience to familiarise with the artist.

To gain a clear idea on the number of panels which would appeal to most people I included this question. 13 out of 20 people preffered a four panel digipak as it is a light weighted album. As a result I will be giving my digipak four panels.

Many digipaks today include booklets based on the album. I wanted to find out if people found these booklets useful or not in order to know whether or not to include it in my slbum production. Clearly, from the graph above 15 out of 20 people find the bookleys "very useful". Only three found the booklets "useful" and one "not useful". I have decided to include a booklet as the results from my questionnaire have shown they are constructive.

The font of an album cover is a key feature as it is one of the main characteristics which grabs the audience is attention. Above my results shows the writing font "italic" is mostly preferred to a "bold font". An italic font will also reflect on the female artist, following the conventions of a female album cover. As stated above, "background information on the artist" is the most appealing trait of an album cover. This is obvious as it allows the audiences knowledge of the artist to widen.

Conventions Of A Real Media Product.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of real media products?

After researching and analysing several different 'RnB' music videos, our ideas we have put together for our own media product uses, develops and challenges forms of real media products.

When researching archetypal storylines in 'RnB' videos, we found the typical storylines are usally about relationships either going wrong or relationships which are succussful, in most cases they are portayed to be unsuccessful. We decided our storyline would be about a relationship not working out, ending up with both boy and girl having to move on and let go. Many 'RnB' videos follow this storyline, some examples are Bobby Valentino's "If I Had My Way", Taio Cruz "Moving On" and Usher "Burn".

Our music video will evidently show our couple arguing, several isssues can be raised from this specific topic as many people in todays society fall in love with someone however things between them not always work out, resulting to them having tolet go and move on. This is how we intend to use one of the typical conventions of 'RnB'.

Another typical convention we plan to use in our music video is a car. Nearly every 'RnB' music video has a car to represent how wealthy they are, most of the times in 'RnB' music videos they are not exactly driving the car, but it is still portrayed in their videos, representing their status. Therefore, we are using a convention from the 'RnB' genre. However, it can be argued we are also challenging todays 'RnB' conventions as the car we intend to use is not to the standards of a typical 'RnB' music video. Sports cars and elite cars are usually evidently seen in most music videos today. Below are examples of cars in 'RnB' music videos:

Snoop Dog & Pharell - 'Drop It Like Its Hot'

50 Cent - Candy Shop

The use of 'Facebook', the newest social network to society, used by people of all ages in our music video is a developing convention from the 'RnB' genre. Many 'RnB' music videos use social networks in their music videos, it is a typical portrayol of modern times. Using 'Facebook' in our music video will help us to gain a wide range of audience, it will also allow the audience to familarise themselves with the situation, placing them in the characters position.

Our 'RnB' video challenges many of the typical conventions as we are only sticking to a few of the main conventions. Typical conventions of the 'Rnb' genre are the portrayol of semi-naked women most the time dancing provacatively, abusive language, big houses, exclusive cars and a hip hop artist usually dressed as a 'Pimp'. This is were we are challenging the 'RnB' genre as we are not portraying those specific conventions.

'Slow Jam' is another form of music from the 'RnB' genre, however it is a slow and calm beat when compared to songs like 50 Cents 'Candy Shop' or Snoop Dogs 'P.I.M.P'. Our music, we intend to use comes under this genre 'Slow Jam', the beat is not heavy but is light weighted when put next to songs made by LiL Wayne or 50 Cent. Artist's that have several songs under the genre 'Slow Jam' are Mary J Blige, Keyshia Cole, Mariah Carey and Usher.

Usher - 'Burn'




LiL Wayne - 'Lollipop'

Both videos above are from the 'RnB' genre. However, both are evidently a contrast to eachother. Usher's 'Burn' is more of a 'Slow Jam' while LiL Wayne's 'Lollipop' is a typical 'RnB' music video following most conventions.

Therefore, as a team we are goin to use, develop and challenge the 'RnB' conventions and hopefully succeed in doing so.