A little note...

Dear Moderator, 

My name is Amandeep Kang and this is my blog; it contains all of the work undertaken as part of the G324 A2 Coursework Portfolio Unit within the OCR CGE course in Media Studies. 

I chose to work in a group of two and produced a music video to the song 'Livin it Up' by 'Ciara'.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

Yours thankfully

Amandeep Kang

My Music Video

Here is my music video for my A2 coursework.

Song: 'Livin it Up'

Artist: Hannah Ziai

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation Question 3

What did you learn from your audience feedback? 

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Evaluation Question 1

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

We also decided to add an element of post modernism to our music video at the end where she kisses the camera. We thought this would be effective as it the audience could feel a connection between the artist and them. 

Ancillary Task: Album Advert For The Magazine

Here is the official album advert for my chosen magazine Cosmopolitan

Ancillary Task: The Website

Here is the link the website i made for my artist!

http://amandeepkang.wix.com/hannah-ziai 

Home

News

About

Tour

Audience Feedback on my magazine album advert 2

After changing my magazine album advert and being more creative, i decided to give my audience another feedback form to see if there were any further improvements. .

Responses included the following:

What went well:

• The picture was better than the last one – shows more of her personality
• The colouring of the headband on a black and white picture made it unique
• The colour scheme used looks visually appealing
• Information isn't too crowded and doesn't take away the attention of the picture

Even Better If:

• The picture used was a slight better quality

However i was unable to fix this problem but still believe my magazine album advert was effective. 

Ratings Average (out of 5):

5

Overall i was pleased with my magazine album advert as it met the criteria of my target audience as well as was very conventional.

Out of 5 stars I asked my focus group to rate how effective my magazine album advert was, with 1* being the not at all and 5* being extremely effective. 1% said 4* and the other 99% said 5*. This reassured me my magazine album advert was extremely effective. 

Making the album advert 2

Taking my audience feedback on board i decided to look through my research. I also felt it was important to be more creative when making my magazine album advert. Therefore i went with a totally new idea. Observing the ones used in my research my favourite album advert was for Nicole Scherzineger's 'Boomerang'. I particularly liked the colour added to the black and white picture. This gave me a new idea for mine.

So this is what i did...

My favourite picture of Hannah was this one:

Looking at other album adverts i noticed there was a lot of emphasis on the face of the artist i.e. through close up shots. Therefore i cropped the picture of my artist to look like this:

I then put the picture onto Photoshop and made it black and white. I had never used Photoshop before so i decided to YouTube how to use the tools.

After doing this i decided to colour the headband as i thought it would look cool. Having this idea i went on to YouTube and watched the tutorial. After this i used the font 'Forum bold' which i had used for the website so i could create a brand for my artist to make it recognisable to my audience. 

After doing this i added another layer and cut out a part from the bottom and made it black. Then i added a text box to include information such as her website, ratings and the 'download on iTunes logo' as the sales of downloading online has increased significantly. I found this out whilst researching the best way to sell to my audience. After adding all of the this is what my album advert looks like. 

Audience Feedback from my magazine album advert 1

After constructing my magazine album advert I decided to ask my target audience/focus group what they thought of it and use this feedback to implement some changes.

Responses included the following:

What went well

• They liked the picture
• The information was good
• The effect on the picture made it stand out

Even Better If

• The logo of where to purchase was added instead of writing
• The format of information was different
• A colour scheme (black, pink and white) ran throughout

Ratings Average (out of 5):

3

Making my magazine album advert 1

When making my magazine album advert i knew it was going to be advertised in the magazine Cosmopolitan as this is the majority of my target audiences most read magazine.

First of all i needed to decide on a picture so i consulted with my target audience and together we thought this would be a good picture to use.

I thought the picture represented Hannah's personality well as it included a intriguing background and her costume and colour of her shoes represents her girly side. I opened up this picture on Photoshop and decided to play around with the effects. 

First i adjusted the brightness of the picture to -62 and contrast to 79 and then added exposure on the picture to add emphasis to her face. 

After doing this i began to include the typography. I used forum bold and made the font size 36.

From my research i new exactly what information to include i.e. the name of the album, when and where to purchase from and include the artists name. therefore i then began to add this.

Here is my magazine advert.

Analysing an album cover

I decided to analyse a album cover so i knew what to include in mine for my magazine album advert. This has helped me to understand the types of things to think about when creating mine.
For example, the tone the picture creates, what is it i want my audience to feel when looking at the album advert? 

Audience Expectations - Magazine album advert

I decided to ask focus group what they expected to be included on my website from a website of their favourite artist. I received the following responses:

What do you expect on the Magazine Album Advert:

• A4 portrait
• ITunes logo
• Ratings
• Writing to link to the artist – i.e. Effects on the letter ‘R’, Rihanna
• A good picture of the artist – possible the album cover

For our artist there is a specific font and colour scheme that runs throughout all the products to create synergy. Despite there not being a specific letter it does follow a uniform look. Once clarifying this to the audience they understood this.

Analysing album adverts

The album advert is black and white and the name of the album is written in red and this is a loud colour to add emphasis on what is begin promoted. Furthermore Rihanna is directly looking straight ahead to directly address her audience. 

At the bottom of this album advert ratings are given by various critics. Also the website is given at the bottom. 

Looking at the albums many include a close up of the artist face.

These all gives me ideas for what i should include in album advert for a magazine. 

Audience Feedback on my website 2

After taking the feedback on board and adding changes to my website i gave another feedback sheet to my focus group and this is what I found out:

Responses included the following:

What went well:

• The colour scheme made my website more visually appealing and the audience were able to create a link between my artist and her perceived persona.
• The music video on the front page as they found it was effective in promoting my artist.
• The picture used was related to them.
• Able to easily access the social networking sites
• A few also mentioned the fact they liked the way the main page of the website was simplistic and elegant as it didn't have crammed in lots of information about the tour or news. However if they needed to view another page it was easy to navigate and receive the relevant information.

Even Better If:

• No suggested improvements

Rating Average (out of 5):

5

Overall I am pleased with my website for my artist as from my target audience feedback form I have found it has met the criteria and from my research I have included typical conventions such as

• Promoting the video on the first page
• Colour schemes to represent the artists personality
• Included links to social networking sites
• Used the conventional fonts and layouts

Furthermore 95% of my focus group thought my website in terms of rating would be 5* and the other 5% said 4*. This suggests my website is effective and I am pleased to have met the requirements of my target audience. 

Making the website 2

After collecting feedback on my website it helped to understand my website needed improving therefore I began to add the suggestions to my website.

Using my previous research and the new feedback I planned more detail for what i need to include on the areas for improvement. Here was my thinking...

Colour – As I wanted to create a uniform look between our 3 tasks I decided to reflect the mood and atmosphere of our artist through the use of colours. I decided to add pink and black as these were the main 2 colours used.

I also decided to change the picture. My target audience had mentioned the website wasn’t very ‘musical’. To fix this I went through the pictures I took with Hannah at the photo shoot and noticed I had one of her on the piano. I used this one to ensure anyone looking at the website would understand who she is instantly. To make the picture look more effective, i decided to reflect this 3 times onto the page. I also added the music video on the front page to make it stand out.

Information – i ensured my artist name was at the  top left hand corner of the website i made as i found from my audience research similar artists  – Ciara, Iggy Azaela and Nicole have this on their website. To be consistent with my brand I ensured the font was the same as the one used on magazine album advert.

Audience Feedback on my website 1

After constructing my website I decided to ask my target audience/focus group what they thought of it.

Responses included the following:

What went well:

• It included the right information
• Good use of pictures
• The link to social media websites

Even Better If:

• More colour was used
• Need something to show its a music artists website

Ratings Average (out of 5):

3

Making the website 1

I used a basic template and made the back ground black. I knew i wanted to create a black and pink and white theme throughout my products to ensure i represented my artists personality. Therefore I used a elegant pink font and made the background black.

Then I decided to add a slideshow of pictures running at the front as I found it was conventional to either add a slide show of pictures or a video. I used the pictures from my photo shoot with my artist.

I also added a social networking bar and linked my artist twitter to the website.

After doing this I then decided to add other pages to my website.

News (the latest)– I added 3 stories of Hannah including her album advert for Cosmopolitan to promote my artist. 

Gallery – I used many pictures from the photoshoot and other ones I had previously taken of my artist.

Tour dates – I went onto similar artists website and found typical venues and added dates, the venue and where to purchase the tickets from.

A plan of my website

Here is a plan i made of what i want to include on my website: 

About 

For this page i kept it simple by adding information on Hannah about:

•      where she grew up
•      when she realised her talent
•      what inspired her
•      how she got there

We got from our audience survey on survey monkey so we knew what type of information to include i.e. she shops where our target audience does.

Tour

For this i looked on Ticketmaster and got the information of locations of tours for example:

• 02 Arena - London
• Phones4u Arena - Glasgow
• LG Arena - Birmingham 

      Merchandise

I didn't think it was appropriate for me to add merchandise as we do not have any.

News

In this section i added the latest news about our artist and also promoted the magazine album advert creating synergy between the two products and added information on what she had been up to lately.

Gallery

I am going to have a photoshoot with our artist to include for this section.

Extra's

Furthermore we had made Hannah a Twitter and linked the icon to her twitter page.

Colour Scheme

Hannah's personality is represented as being girly. Therefore when thinking of colour schemes i used a lot of pink. Also i have included a black and white theme throughout the picture with splashes of colour to represent her girly and edgy side. 

Planning the website

After deciding i wanted to create a website for my artist, I felt it was important to look the websites of other artists and understand the conventions so i could include them in my website.

Here are a few examples: 

 Rihanna

Ciara

 Nicole Scherzinger

Looking at the ones above and others such as Beyonce and Katy Perry, i found on the homepage the following  features increasingly popular:

•     Slide show  in the middle showing pictures or a video of their latest music video videos
• 
  
•     Their name in the middle of left hand side at the top with big letters of the first letter of their name
• 
  
•      Links to their social networking sites (icons at the top of the page)

As these were the main 3 things that came up, this has helped me to understand the conventions used when making a website.

I was thinking of having a capital 'H'' for Hannah and using the colour pink – bright but dark. Pink is very girly and hence this represents her personality.

A black background to show she is quite edgy as well.

I also found other page links for example:

• About (About half a page explaining how they got where they are)
• News (The latest from whats been happening in their lives)
• Tour (Where they are going to performing so fans can go and see them live in concert )
• Videos (All their music videos)
• Merchandise (Selling goods and services with their names on them)
• Gallery (A whole load of pictures)

              

Audience Expectations - Website

After looking at other websites and understanding the conventions of music artists websites I spoke to some of my artist target audience to ask what types of features they would expect to have on our website. 

• Easily accessible information 
• Lots of pictures!
• Tour dates
• A theme which relates to our audience 
• Colourful but not too girly
• Be trendy and have the lastest updates
• Links to social networking sites

The making of Livin it Up

Here is a short trailer to show you about the making of our music video. This trailer was filmed when constructing the chorus to our music video.