Behind the Scenes

Indya Conway's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

Planning: Costume Shots of Star

Indya Conway's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

Feedback From Normanby Hall

As we are planning to make Normanby Hall one of the key locations in the video we had to request for permission to shoot on their grounds. Amy sent them an email explaining that we'd like to use a section of their land for a short period of time in order to contribute to our A Level in media studies and she got a reply earlier this morning!

They said that they need to know the exact timings and places we wanted to shoot and are being quite restricting when it comes to where we can shoot but if we email them back about our plan for the day as soon as possible, then they will be able to give us permission. The sooner the better, because if they reject our request we will have to start looking for a similar location.

Focus Group: Target Audience Research

We carried out a focus group in order to gather other people's opinions. We had three males and three females to represent the target audience we thought would be interested in watching our music video.

Even though the pictures may be embarrassing the process of carrying out a focus group was very useful and we got so many ideas which we didn't think would appeal to the target audience. We also got plenty of reassurance on the ideas which we were a bit unsure of using like the argument at the beginning of the song and the idea of incorporating the boyfriend in the video more.

Below is the sound recording which we made on the voice memo app on Morgan's iPhone. We all created a SoundCloud (which will be useful in the future if we wanted to get feedback from even more people) and then Morgan had a bit of trouble uploading it as he has to email himself, make a separate sound file, post it to sound cloud and get the embed code.

Research: Props and Ideas

Thinking Of You - Katy Perry

The Thinking Of You video is a great one to show representations through the use of props.

The establishing shot is a close up of a pair of black high heels which looks like they's be worn by a traditional woman. They are black because they resemble sadness and guilt and all of the other negative thoughts running around Katy Perry's head whilst cheating on her husband. Although at this point in the video we can not see that she is committing adultery, the negative connotations are already presented. The shoes seen as though they have been kicked off and flicked under a piece of furniture implying that she has undressed or has just made herself comfortable at home. There wouldn't be the same effect if the shoes were a different colour like yellow or green because they are much more playful colours so by making the shoes a dark dull colour it immediately sets a serious mood for the song.

This shot is another close up of Katy Perry playing with what seems to be a locket. The locket would probably contain a photo of a loved one who she is thinking of (linking to the title) and how she misses him. You can also slightly tell by the shape of her mouth in her facial expression how she might be regretful and frustrated. Her face is blemish free and she is wearing subtle makeup to reflect her innocence when she is associated with her husband.

Here, the identity of the man she is thinking of is revealed though the use of a close up of a black and white polaroid picture. This not only gives the audience an idea of the time period but also puts a 'face to the name' of the man in the song. It is perfectly revealed within the first 30 seconds of the music video in order for the audience to feel even more sympathy as they now know what he looks like.

This scene provides intertextuality between the song and the movie "The Notebook". By adding the ever famous bicycle scene it symbolises that Katy Perry felt the same as how Noah and Allie felt in this Nicholas Sparks-inspired novel. Since it is such a well known movie people will associate almost any romantic scene involving a bike used in this way with it. It shows the playful and exciting times that Katy Perry had with her husband before she cheated on him.

The video then quickly transitions into a war scene which looks as if it is going on as she is singing the song. The use of the guns and explosions in the background swiftly changes the tone of the video into being very serious as he is put in a life or death situation. In this song Katy Perry is taking advantage of his love as he risks his life on the battlefield. This provides evidence that she is some kind of villain in the music video however feels very bad about cheating. She actually really misses him (as shown by the use of flashbacks and her holding his picture).

This is a great shot to compare to with our video. This is how I expect the makeup to look at about the halfway point in the video when she is emotionally deteriorated but is still trying to look stable. Katy Perry's tear is a code to symbolise her sadness however by applying her lipstick it represents how she is trying to mask her guilt for cheating on her husband. So although she is emotional about what she is doing to him, she can't let her other lover know that she is, so she has to pretend to be strong.

How this influenced my planning and creativity:

• The use of props is very important as they stand as signs and signifiers throughout music videos.
• Props subconsciously give the audience a feel for the tone of the music video. So I could involve a few props in my music video in order to help the audience feel bad for our star.

Research: Music Video Institutions

Research: Back of Digipaks

 At first glance, the back of this digipak from Taylor Swift struck me as being quite odd and breaks conventions in many ways. For instance Taylor added the personal touch of using her own handwriting for the numbers of the tracks. She has such a big fan base and by doing this it helps them  feel personally connected to Taylor. The font is sans serif and is in capitals which makes it look like it it in more of an order. The barcode and record label take up a large space at the bottom of the panel which is important if they want to catch people's eyes for them to research their label.

The back of Ed Sheeran's digipak for his album "+" followed the pattern of all of the other products sold which contributed to his album by the way in which it is orange. This simple colour creates synergy with all of the tour posters, music video and Ed himself, since his target audience knows him as the young singer with ginger hair.

Maria Mena's digipak is quite unconventional since all of the fonts on the back panel are handwriting fonts or cursive. Although this gives the public an insight into her classy/feminine image it could be quite hard for some people to read it. Many young people may overlook our CD if they saw this writing on the back as it looks quite complicated to read. Since teenagers are stereotypically lazy and always looking for the easier route this might not be a good choice for our digipak and I think we will avoid using it on our ancillaries since it could end up being an inconvenience for our target audience.

The song titles are centered, however they are not in the middle of the page. This disturbes the symmetry of the layout which I have also found to be quite unconventional.

The bottom panel of Alexandra Burke's digipak follows most of the conventions in respect to including a barcode, institution details and a list of all of the songs. What's interesting about this digipak is that it has two different colour of writing on it. The creme text corresponds to the titles of the songs on her album and the dark brown text informs the audience what is on her DVD (which is presumedly included in the digipak). All of the writing is in capitals and looks to be in a bold font to make it look more plentiful and stand out. The simplicity of it makes it simple and easy to navigate to find which frank the song you want to play is on.

The side panels have the artists name and the albums name to make it visible when stacked or on a CD shelf. It also notifies us that it is a Deluxe Edition which will appeal to the audience by shooing that there is bonus features on it.