Evaluation - The Use of New Media Technologies Within Our Project

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

The main impact of new media technologies, on our project, has been the internet. For our research we were able to use a search engine to quickly identify relevant fan websites and artist websites to collect data, and assess who our target audience was. We were also able to analysis artists similar to the one that was chose, using sites such as youtube and spotify, that suggest songs you may like. The use of the internet made it possible to find videos we wanted to watch, and we were able to watch them at our convinence, instead of relying on a radio or a television to possibly show the songs we wanted. Web 2.0 is interactive, because of these people are able to leave comments, talk about a product etc. This enabled us to look at what people thought and how they compared certain artists to others. Using youtube and the print screen function, during our research we were able to capture certain moments and analyse them, because of this, it was easier to notice different shot types, use of lighting, mis en scene, props, locations etc. This media technology allowed us to physically look at other videos and artists and helped us to decide what techniques to use, and how well they worked.

To edit our video, we used iMovie. As none of us in the group had ever used any video editing software, we decided that it was a good starting point for beginners, even if it isn't the most accurate editing software. used a digital camera to film with and then uploaded it to iMovie, because we used a digital camera we were able to change what we used easily, rather than using film which would have to be cut together. We filmed the majority of our video, and then came to the conclusion it wasn't what we wanted, and we were easily able to change our footage. It also gave us the opportunity to quickly cut together the parts of film that were needed, and then later refine the lengths on the shots, and easily sync up the music and action. For my ancillary task I used photoshop CS4, I'd only previously used photoshop for my AS task. As I wanted to create something similar to existing media texts, I downloaded relevant fonts. I also used masks for the background. For the photoshoot for the ancillary task, I used plain backgrounds, such as a black curtain, to make it easier to edit.

Using a blog to document all of the progress towards making our products was the most beneficial part of the available new media technologies. I used the website Scribd to embed powerpoints, without converting the powerpoint into another form. I was also able to upload pictures of screen shots, and add links to other relevant blog posts. Social networking site, Facebook, allowed us to directly recieve feedback, after uploading our work, making it easily accessable by our target audience.

Poster Analysis

I also looked at the posters that advertised the tour promoting the relevant albums for Lily Allen and Lady Gaga.

This is Lily Allen's poster for her tour 'Lily Allen with Natalie Portman's shaved head' where she performed the album 'It's not me, it's you' Similarly to the album cover the background is plain but this time it's white. There is a close up shot of Lily Allen's face but this has been animated and make completely pink, which matches the colour of the font on the rest of the poster, and also matches the theme of the album cover, however the image is completely different to that of the album cover. The writing is very minimal and just says the name of the tour, the date and the venue. This is simple and effective because it's to the point.


Lady Gaga's poster also has a white background with black font and with Lady Gaga wearing the same black outfit as on the album. Once again the information on the poster is straight to the point, the artist's name, the date and the venue. With one small difference to Lily Allen's poster, there is an advertisement for her album. The Photograph of lady Gaga is on the right the same as the picture of Lily Allen on her poster. However this time the whole body of Lady Gaga can be seen. The photograph is different to any on the album, but is in the same style.

CD Cover Analysis

Our ancillary task involves making an album cover, an insert and a poster for our artist. To decide how to develop our ancillary task we looked at different album covers and posters of similar artist's to our genre.
Daisy analysed at Katy Perry and Kesha's album covers.
Stacy analysed Katy Perry's Teenage Dreams album cover.


I looked at Lily Allen's album "It's not me, it's you"
Using Mis en scene to analyse this album cover, you can see that Lily Allen is dressed in a pink dress, with no shoes and a black fascinator. This gives the impression that she's dressed up for a happy occasion, such as an award ceremony. These are not casual every day clothes. Over the front cover she is lead on a giant L, and on the insert she is sat on a giant A. These letters being her initial's gives this impression that this album is all about her, which ties in with the album name, 'It's not me, it's you.' giving the idea that the other person is the problem and she's perfect. I like the way the back ground colour is just blank and beige, this makes the subject stand out and be the main focus. The unnatural position of Lily Allen on the giant L gives an interesting feel and is obviously posed, Lily Allen is not looking at the camera, however in the insert of the album she is. Her whole body is visible is every photograph. The back of the album is a collection of letters spelling out Lily Allen, but they are all jumbled up, still letting the consumer know that the album is Lily's. Lily Allen's name is in large font on the top left hand corner of the album cover, with the album name underneath.









I also looked at Lady Gaga's, The Fame.
Unlike Lily Allen's album cover, not the whole of Lady Gaga's body can be seen, however in the insert and on the back cover the majority of her body is visible. Lady Gaga is dressed in black with the typical weird Lady Gaga style glasses, the name of the Album is written on her glasses. Lady Gaga's name is written in larger font compared to the album name along the bottom on the album cover. The visible background of all the shots used, again is plain but this time black compared to the light beige of Lily Allen's album. The photograph in the insert and on the back cover is the same of Lady Gaga in an unnatural performance pose. I like that she's not looking at the camera in this photograph and that her eyes are not visible on the album cover.

Music video analysis

Stacy analysed Katy Perry's Hot 'n' Cold video, Jamie T's if you got the money video and Kesha's Tik Tok video.


One of the videos that I looked at was Lily Allen's Smile. I watched the first minute of the video online and print screened every time there was a change in scene or shot, this was to show how narrative and performance is interweaved. Narrative being a storyline, like a mini film within the music video and performance is the artist singing. First I put the screen shots in order they appeared in the video.

Lily Allen Smile Original Order



Then I put them into narrative and performance story lines to show how the themes flow throughout but still form an easily followable timeline.

Lily Allen Smile Different Shots



After this analysis, I realised that the majority of the first minute of this particular music video was taken up by performance rather than a narrative story line, and even though the narrative was broken up alot by performance it was still clear what was happening. Which is shown when put all together continuously.
It was also obvious that although the video is fast paced and switches between different camera shots rapidly, (which suits the pace of the song) only a few shots were taken. Most likely filmed continuiously, then broken up and fitted together within the editing process.
The narrative doesn't relate directly to the lyrics, however does relate to loosly to relationships, as do the lyrics.
Many of the shots of Lily Allen in performance are close up, this shows off the artist's face and makes her more recognizable.

Questionnaire analysis

The results of our questionnaire can help us decide what to put into our music video. Our results show that our target audience would like us to use, pop music with a female artist, using a mixture of narrative and performance. The settings must be bright in natural sunny settings.

Music video questionnaire

After finding out what the main target audience for our chosen genre was, we constructed a questionnaire asking about features of music videos that they find attractive and interesting and that work well. Here is our questionnaire and results.

1. How old are you?

8 and below (0)

9-12 || (2)

13-16 |||||| (6)

17-20 ||||||||| (9)

21-24 || (2)

25+ | (1)

(Main age of participants - 17-20)

What is your favourite genre of music?

Pop ||||||||||||| (13)

Rock/metal | (1)

Indie |||| (4)

Grunge

D&B || (2)

Rap/Hip hop

Other (please specify)...

(Most liked music genre - pop)

Do you prefer male or female artists?

Male ||||||||| (9)

Female ||||||||||| (11)

(Most liked gender of artists - female)

Do you prefer bands or solo artists?

Solo |||||||||||||||| (16)

Bands |||| (4)

(Preferred artists - solo)

How well does a strong narrative work in a music video?

Very well || (2)

Well ||||||||| (9)

Average |||||| (6)

Badly || (2)

Very badly | (1)

(Thoughts on narrative - works well)

How well do shots of live performances work in a music video?

Very well | (1)

Well ||||||| (7)

Average ||||||| (7)

Badly ||||| (5)

Very badly

(Thoughts on live performances - well/average)

In a pop genre music video what colouring scheme works best? (e.g. Katy Perry, Girls Aloud, JLS)

Bright ||||||||||||| (13)

Dull || (2)

Pastels |||| (4)

Dark/shadow | (1)

(Preferred colour scheme - bright)

In a pop genre music video which combination of people works better?

All female |||| (4)

All male || (2)

Mostly male ||||| (5)

Mostly female |||||| (6)

Mixed genders ||| (3)

(Preferred combination of people - mostly female)

What setting works best in a pop genre music video? (You can choose more than 1)

Natural outdoors (field, park, beach etc.) ||||||||||||||| (15)

Industrial outdoors (car park, on top of buildings, school etc.) |||||| (6)

Natural (domestic, everyday life etc.) ||||||||||| (11)

Surreal (animated, in space etc.) ||||| (5)

Busy (party, festival etc.) ||||||||| (9)

Quiet (alone, library etc.) ||||||||| (9)

At night (dark) |||| (4)

During the day (sunny) |||||||||||||||| (16)

During the day (rainy) ||| (3)

(Preferred settings - natural outdoors, natural, sunny, busy, quiet)

Target audience analysis

As part of our research into target audience's we looked at magazine's that mentioned the artist Katy Perry because we have chosen to use one os her songs, we also looked at magazines that mentioned similar artists to Katy Perry. I focused on the magazine 'Heat' which is not known for commenting on music, but is more of a current affairs 'gossip' magazine.
There was one article in heat directly involving Katy Perry about her relationship with Russell Band and how she's putting off having children with him.
This is an example of how artists not only attract an audience through their music but through their personal life aswell. Even though Katy Perry and fiance Russell Brand are clearly not the same person she's pretty much mentioned in every article about him. For example another article talks about a new film Russell is appearing in but still mentions her.
Articles are not the only things that occupy the pages of 'heat'. 'The hoop of horror' highlights embarrassing situations of celebs, such as being caught looking orange rather than tanned. On this page Katy Perry is photographed holding a cuddly toy with a banana skin on its head, while she is looking scared. Compared to images of other celebs, such as Cheryl Cole photographed grabbing her own bum, this is not a photograph suggesting anything bad about Katy Perry. This gives the impression that the audience that this magazine is aimed at (women ages 16-25), are a fan of Katy Perry and don't wish to see her in a bad light as this would give the magazine bad press.

Stacy looked at articles, forums and Katy Perry's website, the analysis of which you can see here.
Looking at Katy Perry's website and forums the majority of people who left comments were aged between 15-21 and were female. This is a very similar audience to 'heat' magazine. When looking for magazines mentioning our artist we could not find any aimed at men or boys mentioning any artist even similar to Katy Perry. This gives the impression that her main fan base are 15-25 year old females.

Existing album covers moodboard

In order to create an idea of the type of album covers our artist and similar artists use to inspire our own creation we created a moodboard of existing album covers. This allowed us to easily compare similarities and differences between the album covers.