Final Draft

"Heart Attack" - Amelia
By Nahida Ali

Final Ancillary TEXTS

Final Product

The images below show the final designs for my six panel digi-pak. They are in order of; album cover, track list, cd, music video cd and both left and right insert images. 

I have chosen these designs because they represent the concept of the album thoroughly. For example, the album is title 'Heart Attack' which immediately suggests that the album is about love and heartbreak perhaps. Although, the use of the red heart may seem as a 'cliche' I have designed it in a tasteful way to simply reflect the songs in the album.  

I have used only three colours, a commonly followed convention when designing, in the digipak. These colours are also consistent throughout my video and thus creating continuity throughout my whole promotional package. 

My Overall Experience

My Feedback

The following videos are just some thoughts about my whole Media Studies experience at Wyke. In the videos I can be seen discussing what I would do differently, what I found hard and what I've enjoyed. 

Evaluation Q1

Breaking The Rules Like Bey!

My media product has used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real media products. For example, for my ancillary texts I challenged the formal convention of including the artist on the album cover by replacing it with the title. I was inspired to do so after Beyonce's self titled secret visual album was released. 

 

Beyonce's  album cover is simply all black with 'BEYONCE' positioned in the centre in a pink font. The success of her album shows how digitalisation has eliminated costly marketing campaigns and simplified it all. Through the use of Web 2.0 and social media Beyonce was able to secure her album at the Number 1 spot on itunes with her album making record breaking sales. The use of 'trends' and 'hashtags' allows artists to openly promote their product themselves. By doing this Beyonce has broken and challenged traditional conventions of media production and brought a new post-modern way of thinking to light. 

I followed formal conventions such as creating a 'house-style' throughout my ancillary texts. For example, I have consistently used three colours for all my ancillary texts thus creating a theme. The use of red, black and white connote different meanings. Red represents love and passion which establishes the album a love record. Black is a representation of the rock elements in the album but also represents grief and heartache. The white is a representation of innocence. White establishes Amelia as a new artist and connotes her youth. 

When producing my ancillary texts I was able to challenge formal conventions more than I did in my video. I consider my video to be a traditional pop video through the use of cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing and sound. 

Use of mise-en-scene has helped me to create a narrative however, in my audience feed back many have stated that my video has no storyline. Although, there is no visible storytelling my video allows audiences to subjectively create their own story. For example, on one hand, some viewers may find Amelia as a young vulnerable girl who has gotten her heartbroken. On the other hand, her body language and confidence suggests that she is a strong woman with no fears. The use of costume portrays both views. 

The use of costume is a representation of Levi Strauss's 'Binary Opposites'. There are no polar opposites than black and white and these costumes represent two sides of Amelia. One is a hard rocker chic who lets no boy break her heart and the other is an angelic, vulnerable pop star who offers nothing but love. This is conventional in terms of representation.

Through the use of editing I have followed formal and genre conventions by editing the footage to match the beat of the song. I have also conventionally used lip syncing in my video as a representation of narrative. For example, my video is a performance video the use of lip syncing and dancing represents that. 

Through the use of cinematography I was to convey my 'performance' narrative to the audience. For example, long shots establish the location such as dance studio which reinforces the "performance" narrative in my video. The use of close ups show lip syncing which was once again establishes the "performance" narrative in my video. 

The dance sequence in my video was inspired by Beyonce's Love On Top video as it represents my "behind the scenes" concept. I followed conventions found in Beyonce's video such as lip syncing whilst also dancing however, the dance sequence was not very effective as I was unable to get a Mic and stand for filming. 

 

Evaluation- Theories

Representation Theories

There are many theories which have helped me understand the analytical way in which I should produce my media texts. For example, audience theory has allowed me to make the right choices in order to produce which will appeal to my target audience.Through representation theory I have gained a sound understanding of how representation works by exploring studies such as John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" and Laura Mulvey's " Male Gaze".

Evaluation Q2

Main Product & Ancillary Texts

Overall, I think the combination of my video and main product is successful. A brief example, continuity can be found throughout the products through the use of colour. Red has been used consistently in the entire promotional package. The simplicity of my ancillary texts is also represented through the simplicity of my video. For example, my video does not have a fixed narrative which simplifies the audience's experience when watching the video by allowing them to watch without having to ask questions. 

Continuity is also shown through the use of costume. I shot Amelia for the ancillary costumes in one of the same outfits seen in the video. I did this so that the audience can recognise Amelia in the ancillary texts from the video as the video would be released before the ancillary texts.

As seen in my video, black, white, red has been used profusely. I have done this as I believe it effectively represents the ideology of the song and album. As mentioned before, "Heart Attack" is a song about love which is represented by the use of red. Amelia portrays a character will not allow herself to be heartbroken which is why I have put her in red clothing because it suggests the theme of love but it also represents defiance. Red also symbolises warning and danger which shows that Amelia is warning her love interests that she is not the type of girl to get heartbroken. 

I followed formal conventions such as creating a 'house-style' throughout my ancillary texts. For example, I have consistently used three colours for all my ancillary texts thus creating a theme. The use of red, black and white connote different meanings. Red represents love and passion which establishes the album a love record. Black is a representation of the rock elements in the album but also represents grief and heartache. The white is a representation of innocence. White establishes Amelia as a new artist and connotes her youth.

It also establishes the artist's look, for example the use of the same colours will register the artist with those colours therefore, allowing the audience to recognise the artist through the use of colours.

 

 

I have used Janet Jackson's album release poster as my main inspiration. I believe both my ad and Jackson's ad effectively fulfil the purpose of promoting the album. For example as stated in question 1 of my evaluation, Beyonce's sudden release proved to be a success critically and commercially. Beyonce's simple cover art for her album represents the post-modern media era. For example, "art" is no longer the complex and detailed form as it used to be, post-modern media plays and challenges the conventions of traditional media. 

The videos below are from my audience feedback and the interviewees both agree that my ancillary texts effectively show continuity throughout both of my products.

  

The images below show my ancillary texts once distributed and in real life. Looking at the images, I feel my ancillary texts are successful in being effective compared to real media products.  

Evaluation Q3

 Music Video Feedback

The following videos show my two younger sisters giving feedback for my music video. Set up as a short Q&A my sisters Madiha, 7 years old and Sanjidah, 14 years old expressed their likes and dislikes about my final product. I have chosen to interview my sisters because I will most likely  get a large difference in opinion due to their age gap. 

My sisters age demographic is one of the biggest markets out there in terms of mass and commercial distribution I wanted to see if my video would appeal to them. Amelia is a young, new, pop artist and her prime audience are young girls like my sisters. 

Madiha, 7

I asked Madiha about Disney Channel as she was able to recognise the song from it's original artist; Demi Lovato. I found out my sister is a fan of Disney as two of her favourite artists, Selena Gomez & Bridgit Mendler,  appear on Disney Channel. 

My little sister liked how Amelia's performance was in sync with the lyrics for example, during the lyrics "Paint my nails" Amelia looked down at her nails. Madiha disliked some of the dance moves however, thought her dancing made the video unique. 

I also asked my sister if she would be able to watch my video by herself without supervision and she said yes. I asked if the video was rude or inappropriate and she said no and agreed that our mum would allow her to watch the video on her own. 

Sanjidah, 14

In this video, Sanjidah enjoyed the transitions from scene to scene. She disliked some of the dance moves as she felt they did not flow well with the video. I have began to notice a pattern in my audience feedback regarding the dance moves as many people have said it does not match the video. 

I asked Sanjidah which social groups she thinks will watch the video and she said boys and girls who like mainstream music and artists such as One Direction. Sanjidah also mentioned the phrase "spice boys" and "spice girls". "Spice" boys and girls are a stereotypical representation of a particular social group. Tessa Perkins stated that stereotypes have some truth to therefore I have compiled a profile of a "Spice" boy and girl as according to Sanjidah they are my main audience.

The slide above is a collection of images which I feel represent the social group known as "Spice boys &girls". The age demographic is teenagers plus more specifically 14-21. We as people can identify these stereotypes through the brands particular social groups are associated with. For example, "spice boys & girls" are usually from middle class backgrounds as some of the products they consume and reasonably high priced and are of good quality. They can afford to go socialise by drinking and going on holidays. They listen to mainstream music through platforms such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1. 

Social Media

Surveys

I also conducted a survey about my video with my tutor group. The results of the surveys will be biased as there were only four males and eleven females who took the survey. The questions I asked are as followed:

1. Are you male or female?
2. How old are you?
3. Did you enjoy the video?
4. What did you like the most?
5. What did you dislike about the video?
6. Did you find the hair, makeup and costume appealing?
7. Which look did you like the most?
8. Did you enjoy the range locations seen in the video?
9. What was your favourite location/set in the video? 
10. Do you normally listen to this genre of music?

• Concluding my survey results;
•  8 out of 15 liked the 'Barbara Kruger' set the most  
• 5 out 15 preferred the theater location
• 11 out 15 do not listen to this type of genre
• 6 out of 11 people thought the dancing did not suit the video. 
• 12 out of 15 were in the age group of 16-18 and 1 person being over 25. 
• 15 out of 15 all enjoyed the hair make up and costume, 
•  7 out 12 liked the black outfit the most

Summary of Video Feedback

Overall I am happy with feedback that I have received for my video. It has been very positive with little constructive criticism. Gathering from my feedback, many people thought the dance scene was either unnecessary or needed improving. Also many people mentioned that there is no narrative in my music video. Narrative theorist Tim O'Sullivan suggests that all music videos should include a story. O'Sullivan said through careful mediation, all media texts should offer a way of storytelling about ourselves- not only our own personal experiences but an imitation of our culture or set of cultures. Having said, my main improvement in my video shall be to add a narrative for the audience to follow. 

Ancillary Text Feedback

I have conducted a survey to see which album cover and which back cover the audience preferred. As you can see in the image, the simpler designs received the most votes. With this feedback, I decided to start again with my ancillary texts. My audience feedback gave me the confidence to produce a simple design with the hopes that it will be the most effective. I decided to change my ancillary texts because I did not represent the meaning and ideology about the song. My new designs can be seen below.

With my new designs I conducted new research to see what my audience thought of the new designs. The videos below show a Q&A between two possible audience members. Both interviewees liked the use of the heart and both interviewees enjoyed the simple designs. This proves my hypothesis of a simple design being more effective. 

Album Release Advert

The image below shows how I enlisted the help of others to decide which album release to have as part of my final ancillary texts. I prefer the black & white image as opposed to the coloured ad. Although the only use of colour is red, the black & white image allows the brighter colours to stand out more.