Evaluation Q1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

During my product research I realised that more mainstream singer-songwriters like James Morrison tend to 'perform' a lot more in their videos when comparing them to more independent singer-songwriters like Laura Marling.

Although more independent artists do tend to use performance in their videos, they tend to portray this performance in a very different way to those like James Morrison for example. More mainstream artists tend to show themselves performing on stage, with a crowd for example, whereas artists like Laura Marling tend to show themselves performing in the comfort of their own home for example - they seem more humble whereas the mainstream artists seem more eager to flaunt their already large fan base.

 As the artist I chose to use, Phoebe Hibbert, isn't already famous, I chose to shoot the video in the style of vidoes made by more independent artists. Laura Marling was a big influence of mine, although her production costs weren't as large as others may be, she made sure she had individual and wacky ideas behind the video to make up for the limited production budget.

As I don't have a large budget, I decided to really think about what the lyrics were putting across, and as you know, I came up with the idea of sand reflecting time (sand timers). I knew I wanted to do something to do with sand, but after my first idea failed (model singing the song with sand constantly falling out of her mouth as if the more she talks/sings, the more time she wastes), I found it hard to think of another idea that I felt would be more successful.

Eventually I came up with my final idea - filling a bath up with sand until my actress' body was completely submerged in sand. I think this is a similar kind of idea to something that Laura Marling would have created - it's quite shocking and would stand out compared to videos of more mainstream singer-songwriters, despite the low budget. In some ways I think artists with low budgets create artistic and eye-catching videos to try and get themselves noticed - more mainstream artists don't feel the need to make themselves noticed as they already have a large fan base.

The one thing I wanted to challenge about the stereotypical 'singer-songwriter' music video was the performance aspect of it, so although my actress was singing/miming the song throughout the video, it looked more like her going over the trail of thoughts on her own rather than trying to influence others with those thoughts, which differs a lot from many other acoustic artists.

Final Audience Feedback

When working out how to recieve my audience feedback I decided it would be best to send out a questionaire for people to fill in - if I did this it would be less hassle for those that were to fill it in and I would find out exactly what I needed to. I gave this questionaire out to 20 people of completely mixed ages, races, sexes and musical tastes. Here are the results:

1. Firstly, do you tend to listen to this type of acoustic music? (I wanted to double check I had asked a wide range of people to fill in the questionaire - if I had just asked people that generally liked the acoustic genre it may have been a slightly biased review of my work.)
Yes - 8
No - 12

2. Did you enjoy the music video despite your usual taste in music? (As Phoebe Hibbert is generally unknown in the music industry as a whole, I was aiming to create an enjoyable music video+ancillary products for all, even those that aren't prone to listening to acoustic music.)
Yes - 14
No - 6

3. Do you think all three products linked well together? (On this question I had left space for any extra comments. I will write these below.)
Yes - 18
No - 2
Any comments? -

• I liked the fact that the three forms of advertising were all based around the same idea. It was obvious as an outsider that they all were related to the theme of sand, though I did not get the purpose behind the sand until it was explained to me, which I think could be improved.
• The idea was good and original but I think the filming could have been better.
• They all worked well together, they made me want to see more of Phoebe's work.

4. If you could change any thing about the advertising of the artist what would it be? (I wanted to really dig deep and find out people's true feelings about my products - I chose not to have a 'I wouldn't change anything' option, as I feel many people would choose this as an easy option! Below are a selected few of the comments people left - I have only included the answers that I felt helpful.)

• As I said before, I didn't really understand the whole sand idea. Although the three worked well together, if you were to re-do the project I'd encourage you to make the whole idea clearer.
• On the digipack cover and the magazine advert, I'd make the egg timer more of a key part as to make the idea easier to understand. I'd also include an egg timer in the video to make a clear link between the three products.
• In the video, the sand could have been made to be more obvious - she could have been swallowed up by it quicker as it took me a while to realise that sand was even going in to the bath. This could have been made more obvious by using better lighting, though.
• I would have been more interested in knowing a bit more about the artist - as she's unknown, I'd like to know a bit more about her, the digipack would have been a good place to include this information, but you only wrote about the songs and videos.

My audience feedback has helped me understand that I should have emphasised the sand idea more than I did. Although the majority of people understood the whole idea, quite a few didn't understand the concept behind it at all, but they did notice the links. If I were to re-do the project I think I would have included egg timers in the video too, to link it to the ancillary products more clearly, and I'd have included other things that show the idea of time (for example, clocks) to really push the idea of running out of time across.

Rough Cut Of Music Video

This is the rough cut of my music video. After watching this over and over, I decided that I don't think the video is interesting enough, and I think the idea is somehow too subtle. After taking these ideas on board, I've decided to do more shooting and film sand falling down the porcelain side of the bath. I'm going to do this from three different distances, so I can add whichever of these in to the video wherever fits best. I'm also going to film sand falling on her feet. Although this seems random, it indicates the idea of the sand/lack of time following her wherever she goes and in a way preventing her from moving around/doing what she ultimately wishes to. I also think it would look really good to have the bath taps pouring out sand. This may be hard to do, but over the next few days I'm going to think of ways to manage this as I think it would be really successful, and make the whole idea of the bath much more meaningful and important.

Diary

Will upload scanned diary soon.
Also, upload story board to this post.

Big problem!

• As I'm using my sister in the music video, it was easy to do tests of the video at home. Doing a test of my music video, I realised that having my sister singing with sand coming out of her mouth didn't look good at all - it didn't fall out of her mouth evenly, ended up coming out in three splurges per mouthful of sugar ('sand'), and just looked terrible. Because of this, I'm having to change my idea. I liked the idea of using sand/sugar in my production, as I think the idea of sand really worked with the lyrics of the song, and was a well thought out idea. I re-looked at some of my previous ideas (e.g. sand falling down whilst song plays + sister sings, sister singing song whilst keeping many sand timers running), but wasn't happy with them so I started to think about possible ideas again.

• I thought of the idea of something filling up with sand, as if the higher it gets the less time the singer has to reveal their feelings. After thinking about suitable objects/ways to fill with sand, I thought it would look good for Ellie to be in a bath, that's slowly being filled up with sand. When the sand reaches her head, it will stop pouring into the bath but she'd now be unable to move as the weight of the sand is tying her down.
  

• After researching into this idea, I found out that the average bath holds 135 litres. After having to convert kilograms to litres, I worked out that nine or so bags of play sand (15kg) will be enough to fill the bath (with a person in it). Each 15kg bag being £2.99, this'll work out to be £26.91 for the whole video. 
  

• I'm having issues about what I want Ellie to wear in the bath. Initially, I wanted her to wear smart, dressed up, seductive clothes, to signify how close she was to revealing how she felt. Then, I thought it might be better for her to wear more casual clothes to signify her what seems to be casual attitude towards the relationship. I've decided to put together two possible outfits, one casual and one dressed up, and take photos of her in the bath as if the sand was being poured on her. This will then give me more of an idea about which outfit will look best, whether it works well with the shape and colour of the bath, and whether sand falls well on it the outfit (e.g. pouring sand on to silk will look very different to pouring sand onto a rough fabric like denim or linen).
  

• Thinking about this, I want to make it look like she's actually in a bath with water. I'm thinking of placing candles around the bath to create an atmosphere as if she's trying to calm herself down and relax in the bath, but the sand is swallowing her up not allowing her to relax (as in her free time she's simply thinking about how time is running out). Half way through the video, I want her to dip her hand in water (that will be placed out of the shot so it's not obvious), and rub her eyes, so her make up smudges as if she's in a bubble bath. This will also add to the idea that she's getting more and more stressed as time goes on, and as the song goes on as she's dwelling on the subject.
  

• As I'm filming at home, I had the choice of filming in two bathrooms. One of them is colourschemed white, blue and green, and the other is more simply white. I've chosen to shoot in the plain white bathroom, as there is a window right next to the bath so there'll be good lighting, and quite a plain background. 

• I'm going to buy the sand in the next couple of days (I may have to go to various different Argos stores as no one store that's close has more than four packs of sand!), and will take a camera home to film the video!

Mock Ups

upload when scanned

Planning

Advanced Portfolio

Long Term Planning Schedule

Week Beginning	To be completed	Resources Required
2/11/09	Finish all blog prep. Finish mock ups for each product + upload these to blog.	Internet (blog). Video camera for mock up video. Photoshop for mock up advert + digi-pack.
9/11/09	Do two days of filming (final video). Upload this to blog, stating what went well and what didn’t. Take final photos for digi-pack and magazine advert (make sure a selection of different compositions are tested). Upload these photos to blog, so able to show difference between original photo and final.	Internet (blog). School video camera. DSLR camera (for high quality photos). Actress – Ellie Perkin. Photography studio – as a setting for final video (enables use of professional lighting).
16/11/09	Begin to put together video – put music and video together, start to edit this. Write about this, uploading it to the blog, stating what I’m happy with and what I need to improve. Work on+ finish digi-pack. Upload thoughts on digi-pack – is there anything I’m not happy with? Upload photo version of digi-pack to blog to annotate. Why have I chosen to make it like this?	Mac – iMovie. Photoshop (for digi-pack). Internet (blog).
23/11/09	Carry on editing video – aim to have finished this by Wednesday. Upload writing to blog. Work on+ finish advert. Upload advert to blog + write about why I’ve decided to lay it out like that. What I found hard, what I like about it.	Mac – iMovie. Photoshop (for advert). Internet (blog).
30/11/09 First Draft / Rough Cuts to be completed (To be handed in on Wed)	When shown to teachers, make a brief of what more there is to do. Upload this brief to blog. Begin final edit. Write on blog about what I have left to do.	Mac – iMovie. Internet (blog).
07/12/09 (Getting feedback on Tuesday)	Aim to finish editing on video to finalise with teachers by Thursday. Make sure digi-pack and advert are ready to hand in – upload finished copies to blog.	Mac – iMovie. Photoshop. Internet (blog).
14/12/09 Deadline Week (Deadline = Wednesday)	Make sure all loose strings are tied up by Tuesday at the latest – there shouldn’t be anything left to do this week concerning production work. Write final evaluation of project on blog.	Internet (blog).