Welcome

Welcome to my blog displaying the research and planning, development and construction, and evaluation of our promotional package. Working in a group of four we have created a music video to the track 'It's OK' by Atomic Kitten, along with ancillary texts such as Magazine advertisements and a Digipak. 

Final Cut

This is the final cut of our music video to the track 'It's OK' by Atomic Kitten.

Final Mag Ads

This is our first final group mag ad. This is the mag ad that we will use more widely than all of our other mag ads. Similar to the other three mag ads we have included an image of the digipak (as it is what this ad is advertising), info on tour dates and where to find us on our social networking sites. We also included a QR code linking to our twitter page. The image we chose is of the girl group looking very united, a convention often seen in boy bands also. We chose to use the image of us in the blue costumes, sticking to the colour scheme and what may have been recognised from other ads or our digipak. 

This main ad is one of three, each showing one of the group members individually. We did this for the purpose of using all three throughout one magazine. We would not use them all on the same page but randomly throughout the magazine to keep grabbing the readers attention and reminding them. By doing this we also help show the girls individuality by showing them separating and making sure they are recognised as individuals and having their own personalities. This image of one of the members was in the alternative costume for our mag ad shoot. This was the more reddy pink toned dresses. We used this image to include some more variety in the ads. In this image she is stood in a feminine pose, and we used the male gaze theory here again, helping the ad be more diverse and able to be used across a range of magazines with different target audiences. Again this ad also includes all the information all the other main ads do. 

This is the second of the individual mag ads. Here we chose a different image introducing different levels to the girl groups poses, keeping the images interesting and recognisable as linking, but not all exactly the same. Here we used again the blue themed dress and this image has a lot of emphasis on the very high heels, again reflecting the male gaze theory. We got the member of the girl group to do a direct gaze into the camera, again a convention of girl group music videos specifically and also enticing the reader and getting their attention as the image is very direct. 

This is the final main mag ad, again linking the the individual ones. Here again we went for the blue theme dress, again a very feminine pose. In this image we chose to, instead of having a direct gaze into the camera, to have the image so it looks like she is looking at the groups name. We thought this worked effectively and was a clever way of linking the image and the text together. 

This is the first of our teaser mag ads. This one in particular we thought would work very well in men's magazines such as FHM or Nuts. We took an image of one of the girl group members facing away in a feminine pose and edited a QR code onto her posterior, the QR code linking to our twitter page. The pink background would stand out in a mens magazines as it is not usually a colour associated with them. The shade of pink is also the same shade used in some of the writing on our main ads. We wanted to include teaser mag ads as well as they are a good way of creating excitement about the release of the video and album.

This teaser ad is influenced by the use of candles in the narrative section of our video. We also used the concept of narrative enigma here as the girls heads are cut off, so the audience doesn't know who is holding the candles. The colours of the tops again link to the colour scheme as the red, black and grey are all colours we have previously used.

In this teaser mag ad we wanted to use the editing tools in adobe photoshop. To create this we layered two images of petals and tea lights. We layered them over each other as we think it gave the effect of the petals falling. Underneath these layers we put an image of the three girls holding hands and facing away from the camera, again showing the feeling of unity. Again narrative enigma is used here, and a QR code to anchor who it is to any interested audience.

Our final two mag ads incorporate the growing phenomenon of funny cat images and videos. We thought by our group name also including 'kitten', it also would be clever to involve kitten images, as there is a clever link there. This phenomenon also seems to be popular across a very large demographic making these ads very diverse. In the first image we edited the QR code onto the kittens chest. In the second image we also incorporated the rose petals seen in the video, digipak and some of the other mag ads. 

Here is a video displaying all of our ancillary texts:

Final Digipak and Lyrics Booklet

DIGIPAK:

LYRICS BOOKLET:

We chose to include a lyrics booklet in our digipak as it is a common convention seen across them. Our target audience of teens are also likely to be the kind of audience to want to sing along and mimic atomic kitten and want to aspire to be famous like them. By creating a lyrics booklet they can learn the songs and sing along, and the booklet also includes images of the group that are new and unique to this booklet:

Page 9

Page 10

Evaluation Question 1 - Conventions

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Later in the post a 2 videos and a prezi are included to help support and answer the question in more depth. They are named, 'Evaluation Q1 - Poppy', 'Digipak Conventions'.

The music video is the primary product of our coursework, this is accompanied by two supporting ancillary texts (magazine advertisements & a digipak). These 3 texts all share loosely linked conventions and imagery to connect them together, although as they are separate texts they also have their own specific conventions, which they follow and also challenge. Here I will use my own knowledge and information gained from the group research and planning to discuss these texts and their conventions, and how we have used and challenged them to be appropriate with our products.

MUSIC VIDEO
General Conventions

Lana Del Rey lip syncing and looking
into the camera lens - an example of
Direct Gaze

From the extensive research we have done on genres and sub-genres, I feel I have gained a good idea of what is to be expected from a music video an how these conventions might be used and interpreted in a different way across the different genres. 

 A large majority of videos involve lip syncing and a direct gaze. This means that the singer(s) will look directly into the camera whilst lip syncing, to create a relationship with the audience. Lip syncing can be involved in a video in a lot of different ways, some more uniquely than others. Some videos are only performance, and so the lip syncing is likely to be throughout the video and often in a very performance setting, e.g. microphones and band. Others may include the lip syncing being cut into the narrative and/or concept, rather than on its own.

Rihanna

Two of Lady Gaga's outfits in 'Telephone'

Another convention that is commonly reflected in music videos is the Male Gaze Theory. This concept is that female artists will often wear revealing/tight clothing and the camera angles and shots chosen will often objectify these body parts that are on display, to attract a male audience. 

The ideas behind the Male Gaze Theory can still be seen today, as it can be debated that artists such as Rihanna andLady Gaga are being advertised in their videos as modern day 'sex symbols'. Their outfits and dancing is usually provocative, which, arguably might be giving out the wrong signal to their young teenage girl primary audience, however it increases sales and hits from their secondary male audience.This in particular is a very controversial subject with Miley Cyrus' music video 'Wrecking Ball' got a lot of bad publicity for being very explicit.

 This theory is also reflected in girl groups' videos and styling, such as Girls Aloud and The Sugababes, however compared to solo artists they are often a lot more 'tame' and PG. On the flip side, it can be argued that there is a relatively modern idea of a Fe-male gaze, which is when the male body is objectified in a video, rather than the woman's. An example of this idea being used would be in Chris Brown's Turn Up The Music, when he is dancing without a shirt on. This helps to also keep the audience engaged throughout the video, as well as increasing the audience.  The female gaze is much more of a recent theory, being introduced a lot more in modern pop culture. 

Alex Turner is the lead singer of the Arctic Monkeys and
is featured the most in the video for 'WYOCMWYH'.

   Star treatment can be observed throughout all genres. This is when the lead singer of a group or band is focused more than the remaing members, usually because they're the most recognisable and are often seen as 'the face' of the group. The lead singer may sometimes also feature in the narrative as well as performing. At live gigs, the vocalist will interact with the audience the most, meaning they have more of a personal interaction with the fans than the other members, however this may be as it is most convenient for them if they are not playing an instrument. Some examples of where this can be seen is in the majority of Bastille's videos, in The 1975's Chocolateand the Arctic Monkeys Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High.

'Miami Vice' titles

 A large number of music videos often begin with a diegetic introduction/outro and/or feature diegetic interludes. A diegetic introduction means the music doesn't begin straight away. A narrative will often play with diegetic sound until the track plays. This is often used to set up the narrative and start the story, with something significant happening to start the music. A diegetic interlude is when the track will pause during the song, but there will be a continuing narrative and diegetic sound introduced until the track plays again.
  

'Reaching Out' titles

 Finally, intertextuality can be recognised in a variety of music videos. Lana Del Rey's National Anthem features intertextual references from Marilyn Monroe's 'Happy Birthday Mr. President' and the Zapruder film, which can be clearly recognised (Stuart Hall's theory of preferred/oppositional reading). Earthquake by DJ Fresh is another example which uses intertextuality, as well as cross promotion and product placement. The video interlinks with Kick Ass 2, acting as an advertisement for the film. These 2 different products tie-in, which is a positive feature as they advertise each other and can be more widely recognised. In the video for Reaching Out by Nero, the titles offer a tele-visual intertextuality of Miami Vice and provide a sense of realism.

Genre Specific Conventions

When I had done a lot of general research into music videos we then felt more comfortable choosing our own artist and track to create a music video to. Once we had decided upon our song as a group, we set about researching the genre specific conventions so that we could apply and challenge these in our own production. 

These are just a few of the common conventions that were recognised during research: 

Our video is a pop girl group, so these conventions are specific to this.
Pop videos tend to be colourful and bright to make them eye catching and engaging, and also often involve numerous transitions and effects, which keeps the pace of the editing consistent and fast. These features can be seen in both solo artists and groups' videos, as bright videos appeal more to the target audience, which for pop, is usually a young teen or tween audience. As Pop videos tend to be more light hearted, transitions and effects break up the linear shots and add an extra element of playfulness.

NSYNC - Pop: Justin Timberlake individually lip sycning
& bright colours and effects

   There are also a variety of shots and set ups pop videos especially more upbeat ones, which have the same purpose of the effects and colours; to keep the audience engaged. If the video all took place in the same location for example, the audience would quickly get bored of the mise-en-scene and it wouldn't be visually exciting to continue to watch for the whole song. They make the viewing more interesting and open to interpretation/preferred reading. Music videos are designed to be watched a number of times, so these conventions play a key role in allowing the audience to enjoy the video many times without getting bored as there are more aspects for them to notice on multiple viewings and they won't appreciate every aspect of the video all in the first viewing. 

  The portrayal of star treatment is common across all genres, however it is most common in pop videos. Within a group, there is usually one lead vocalist, the strongest singer, who has the most solo sections in the song. In videos, this individual will be always be at the centre of the group or closest to the camera, along with more individual lip syncing shots than other members. For example, in Pop by NSYNC, Justin Timberlake stars the most. This was because he was the most famous member of the group at the time, and so the audience could recognise the group easier when he was shown on screen. In more recent pop groups, the lead singer or a singer which gets a significant amount of solo attention is often the most popular member on social media and with the fans, not necessarily the best singer. An example of this is Harry Styles in One Direction.

Dance performance in S Club 7 - S Club Party

Music videos can be de-constructed into 3 different categories; performance, concept and narrative. It is most common for a pop video to be constructed around performance footage and a concept, most of the time involving the members in the group heavily, or certainly the lead vocalist. If there is a narrative, it will most likely be romantic, to link with the lyrics (which are commonly based on a romantic love story). With an upbeat tempo there will also usually be a dance routine incorporated into the performance on top of the lip syncing, to add additional entertainment and something that the audience can mimic, as well as learning the lyrics to a song.

How We Used/Developed/Challenged Music Video Forms and Conventions:



Transcript:

• After researching both the general and genre convetions of music videos I was able to recognise the parts of our own video that we would be able incorporate these conventions in also. Starting with planning our idea in a lot of detail and taking influences from Atomic Kitten's previous videos, including our track It's OK. We also looked at more modern examples such as The Saturdays and Girls Aloud, mainly for costume and location inspiration. Atomic Kitten tend to follow the majority of common conventions. Examples of this are their use of lip syncing, direct gaze, and reflecting the male gaze theory through the use of tight and or revealing clothing. Because we picked up and noted these down when researching the group in more detail we thought it would make our video more accurate and appropriate to include these in our production.
• The costumes we decided on took a lot of time and effort to perfect. As said before mainly influenced by the saturdays, girls aloud and atomic kitten. All these groups tended to wear smart dresses and heels in their video with heavy make up and styled hair. The many set ups used also involved a costume change usually. We have incorporated all of these into our video.We used 2 styles of dresses each, one blue and one black, and then we wore floral and patterned clothing for the casual shots. We mixed up the outfits to provide a visual range and to keep the audience from getting bored. We took particular inspiration for the casual outfits from the original video for It's OK, as they're wearing headbands and floaty tops, to fit in with the beach location. Because one of our locations was a wooded area, we thought it would work effectively if we wore floral clothing, to reflect the natural hippy theme associated with woodland. We feel that this worked well, as it broke up the formal side and added a more relatable, casual side to the video.
• The narrative costumes took a lot of discussion as the conventions aren't as specific. Again we used 3 different outfits, ranging from casual to more dressy to create a sense of realism. Because the narrative was split into past and present, there were 2 outfits for the past and one for the present. We used 2 outfits for the past scenes, one for the outside shots and one for the inside shots, for both the boy and girl. The 'inside' outfit was the most formal out of all 3, as it was worn for the romantic meal set up, so therefore we felt it would be appropriate for the boy to be wearing a shirt and for the girl to be wearing a nice top and skirt. The 'outside' shots was the most casual out of the outfits as they were appropriate for the setting and walking the dog, any other outfits would've come across fake and unrealistic, hence the wellies. The relaxed costumes also made it easier for the audience to relate to the characters as it is the kind of clothes they are likely to own and they can easily imagine themselves in the same position as the narrative characters. 
• To some extent we have also applied the male gaze theory. The dresses that we wore were different, with some being low cut and others being tight/bodycon and for the 'hippy' outfit, we wore tight jeans and shorts, and vests and crop tops. Because we were limited for choice, we chose the outfits that we thought would look most effective on camera whilst also considering what clothing would reflect the Male Gaze Theory the most. We wanted to make sure we stayed true to the colour schemes, so we were limited with the style due to us wanting to stick to this. In the editing of the video, we included some close ups which showed off our bodies, however because the target audience is 12-24, we did this in moderation, to accommodate the younger girls' viewing. Despite this, there is objectification used in some parts of the video, with some shots being more subtle than others, for example the shot at the end, of the group walking away begins as a slight pan up their lower bodies then as they move away from the camera they fully come into shot.
• Regarding our locations, we challenged what you would typically expect to see in a girl group video. The pop genre tends to be centred around urban themes, with gritty backstreets widely used by both female and male artists and groups, for example Blue's One Love, which provides street credibility for the boys. In contrast to this, we shot both our performance and narrative footage in rural areas. This was mainly due to accessibility as we have a lot of rural areas near to us that work very effectively and it made sense for us to take advantage of this. The areas in which we live are rural, which also meant there were many possible locations to choose from which would not be interrupted by other people. For the narrative section, we used one of our own houses which was further out that what we had wanted, yet this house provided us with the most scope and more location opportunities. Because of this, we planned the narrative shoot thoroughly and carefully to make sure that we would not need to re shoot any of this footage and have to rearrange transport at the last minute. This thorough planning meant that one long day of filming was sufficient for the narrative and we didn't have to try and persuade the cast to give up more of their spare time to film.  Most of the feedback we received praised the rural aspect to the video, so we feel that by challenging the common conventions we actually created a video with more of an impact on the audience.
• To add more emotional pleasures to our video, as spoken about by Rick Altman, we used a particular style of editing to convey the romantic narrative clearly. Pop music videos tend to be edited to fit the tempo and style of the lyrics, and because the lyrics are romantic, we thought that it would be best to leave slightly longer takes than what you would expect to see in an upbeat dance video, as it portrays the romantic element more effectively. We also made the narrative section in black and white to further emphasise this. The use of mise-en-scene further allowed us to convey the romantic theme, as we focus on the exchange of the roses and a necklace in the video, and then re-use the petals of these roses again later in the video. We needed to make sure that these props were not the total main focus points so as to overrule the rest of the video, yet they still needed to be clear enough for the audience to pick up on, through preferred reading, as explained by Stuart Hall. The transitions we chose were also chosen carefully, as these also needed to fit in with the 'soft' editing style. We used a lot of fades, and created a transition out of some existing shots that we had. We had a shot zooming into water, and a zoom out to show the duck pond, so we put these two shots together to create a new transition, rather than using a pre-installed fade or zoom out. We received great feedback from this transition, so we decided to keep this and use it in our final video, as it worked effectively and looked professional. Layering has also been featured many times in our video, as this again fits in well with the theme of the video and our editing style and is a good way of connecting the narrative and performance sections other than just basic cuts. We layered performance shots onto narrative shots, as it added visual variety and made some shots, particularly scenery shots, appear more effective. It was also a good way of connecting the lyrics to the narrative and made the link more anchored. Compared to other existing romantic pop music videos, we have tried to edit our video appropriately and similarly to how these videos are cut, as we wanted to make it as realistic and  as believable as possible.

DIGIPAK

Digipaks do not tend to have genre specific conventions, as they all include similar features. This vodcast explains the common features of a digipak (which can be found across all genres):

Below, this prezi presentation demonstrates how we have considered the conventions spoken about in the above vodcast, and how we have incorporated them into our digipak:



Transcript:

• Our digipak has been based on existing digipaks, mainly influenced from our genre. We took many aspects of these products and then applied them to our own production. We have been influenced vastly by these designs, especially of Atomic Kitten's own digipaks, as we felt like to not stay accurate to this would look unprofessional and not like an actual produced digipak. Previous research into general and genre specific digipaks provided us with clear insight into what to include in ours;
• The first aspect we noted was a recognisable image of the artist placed in at least one place on the digipak. This was more common in the pop genre, with artists like Jessie J and Rihanna, and less common in the rock genre, such as the Arctic Monkeys with AM (2013). However, some artists outside the pop genre, like Green Day, do use images. An image helps the audience to identify the artist and a connection between the artist and the fans base can be established, consequently encouraging more people to buy the album. This is arguably is the most important and common convention, as it instantly reaches out to the audience and advertises the artist as a more widely recognised artist. We chose to follow this convention, and use a variety of images throughout the digipak. We placed an image on the front and back of the group together, despite some texts using an image which flows across the front onto the back. Although we're aiming for a more 'professional' look, we used a slightly blurry image on the front where we are mid-laughter, rather than falsely posing. We thought this image worked effectively as it adds a sense of realism to the idea, and the laughing/smiling aspect enables the younger spectrum of the primary audience to feel a connection to the group, and makes it more fun and appealing for them. The image on the back isn't an accurate reverse of the front, but we are facing away from the camera, which adds variety to the style of images, and the holding of hands signifies the theme of 'girl power' and the closeness of the group. The lyrics booklet includes more images, which are exclusive to the booklet.
• Another major, is for the album title and artist name to be clearly displayed. This can have the same, or an even better impact on the audience as an image. The audience need to know what they're purchasing and so providing this information clearly and concisely is key to selling the product. On our digipak, we placed the artist name at in the centre at the top in a very striking clear font, with the album title below in a slightly smaller font. We decided to do this as we wanted to draw attention to the digipak, and as it is on the front cover, we wanted to make sure it was one of the main selling points. The font we picked is simple yet effective and we downloaded it from Dafont.com. We didn't want to use a font which was too fancy, as this could have come across as immature and unprofessional, and therefore wouldn't give the impact we hope for. We took inspiration from the Atomic Kitten digipaks for this font, as it again fits in with the professional look which we're aiming for.  We have downloaded the fonts off the internet and have then installed them into the font book on mac, we did this so we can use them multiple times across our ancillary texts. We chose our fonts carefully, because we wanted to make sure they were effective enough. We used the same font throughout in the lyrics booklet, as we wanted them to look connected and near, but on the back we used a variety, making sure they worked well together. The fonts all compliment each other, still providing a mature yet fun element to the digipak. 
• In regards to colour, we have in some ways challenged the 3 colour rule that we picked up on, especially in the pop genre. In terms of font colours, we have stuck to grey, salmon pink and blue,this matches the blue colour themes seen in the photos, mag ads and video. These colours work well together, as they don't clash too much, yet they still provide visual pleasures for the audience. For the lyrics booklet, the colours of the writing aren't exactly the same as those on the outside, but they're different shades of these colours, so we still think that the 3 colour rule can be applied to these font colour choices. However, in the photos in the lyrics booklet, we added another colour to add more visual variety and to break up the blue. Costume wise, we had 2 burgundy dresses and a cream and black lace dress, we used these add additional colours and creates more visual interest.These colours can be linked to the pink fonts used on the back of the digipak, but they could be classed as different and extreme shades of pink. The cream dress can also fit in with the off-white background used throughout the digipak and mag ads, and the black lace links to the grey font as it can be viewed as dark grey. We felt that adding these extra colours has not completely challenged the 3 colour rule, but adapted it, so that the buyers can view a product containing variety and not just straight, common conventions.
• There will always be a bar code placed next to the production company logo and product information usually on the back, such as the record label. On ours we added the record company logo, a barcode, the CD symbol, the DVD symbol and the 'available on iTunes' symbol, as well as our QR code. For the spine, we have followed common conventions, by adding the artist and album title again, and the record company logo with a distribution number. QR codes are becoming more frequently used and widely recognised, and as digitisation develops more people own smartphones, so we thought that by adding the QR code, we could widen our audience. Due to the split of Atomic Kitten in 2004, and re-united in 2012, leading up to the 'Big Reunion' between Liberty X, Five, Honeyz, 911, B*Witched and themselves, we felt that adding a sticker on both the front and back of the digipak promoting a live DVD of their tour further promoted the album as their 'new comeback album'. As for the iTunes logo, this also promotes the album to a wider audience by making it digitally available too, again linking into the reunion and comeback material.

MAGAZINE ADVERT
Conventions:
We created multiple teaser mag ads and final mag ads, so that we had a large range that would be appropriate for different publications and size advertisements. Just like music videos and digipaks, mag ads follow common conventions too.

The first main convention is that the artist's name will always be the largest text displayed and often will usually be central to the mag ad to make it more aesthetically pleasing to the reader. This is done to draw attention to the artist, as this is the first feature that the magazine reader will usually notice first. Some more modern pop artists may not be recognised as much physically by older audiences, yet their name may still be recognisable, and so by placing the artist name onto the mag ad it is being aimed at a wider audience, and a name can be displayed uniquely to make it more striking. 

The name of the new album/tour,  or whatever it is advertising will also be placed underneath the artist name. This is the main feature point and the sole purpose for the ad, and so this also needs to be large text underneath the artist name and noticeable. The audience need to be informed about what the advert is actually advertising, and so this is a common convention used across all genres. An image of either the artist themselves or an image relevant to the artist will also be included, unless it is a teaser mag ad, where narrative enigma may be applied. For well known acts, an image can be instantly recognisable whether it is of them themselves or not, as the fan base will be well established and recognise any intertextuality. This also intrigues and entices the reader and makes them want to read into the rest of the ad. A date of release also needs to be included, or in a teaser ads case something along the lines of 'coming soon', so that the readers know when they can purchase the material being promoted. Finally, the record label will usually be included, through the use of the logo or the website as often in legal contracts they have to be included in any promotion. 

How We Used/Developed/Challenged Mag Ad Forms and Conventions:

Our QR code

We decided to follow the majority of these conventions, with the exception of we didn't use include the record label and we instead replaced this with a QR code linking to our twitter page as we felt that is more of a modern way to connect with the audience. Because smartphones are becoming more frequently purchased and used, QR codes are becoming more easily recognised and so we thought it would be appropriate to add one.

   

We added the artist name 'Atomic Kitten' at the top with 'Whole Again' in a slightly smaller font below on all the main ads. We also included another sticker advertising the digipak, in a bold font to make it stand out and eye catching to the audience.  We have used a professional, sleek style across our ancillary texts. The final group mag ad could be argued to be fairly simple, yet after experimenting, we decided that other images and text appeared too clumsy and looked out of place. Also, looking at past digipaks and mag ads from Atomic Kitten they always had a fresh, clean and simplistic look, which is something we wanted to replicate and make sure ours was accurate to what would actually be seen on shelves and in magazines.We feel that because the group have recently reunited, 'less is more'. This means that we have provided sufficient information for the reader, without giving too much away, and again the QR code allows the audience to further gain more knowledge about the new product, if they wish. If we gave too much away it would give the audience no intrigue about the new tracks being released or any bonus footage, making them less likely to purchase it. 

SUMMARY
Across the range of our products we have both included and challenged the common conventions, we mainly did this as this makes products successful for a reason and also for our texts to be very recognisable and look professional and realistic. Overall, our choices our products have varied in order to appeal to our primary and secondary audiences, but we also wanted to include more modern elements to make sure this reuniting girl group still looked as if they are up to date and adapting to digitisation and the ever changing interactive world.