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

My group and I decided to answer this question together on video, so each of us could take responsibility for a different aspect of the question and present on it, as well as contributing to other group members' sections. My designated area of expertise for this question was Goodwin's Theory and how it applies to our video.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Our main aim in the relationship between our main and ancillary texts was to create a strong 'brand identity' for our artist. We thought the best way to achieve this was through the creation of a website and an album cover.

It is immediately apparent that both texts support each other, as the album cover is the central icon of the main website page and the website is advertised in large red font on the back cover of the album. Also, the song 'Meddle' plays automatically when you reach the website and this supports the music video too.

As well as creating synergy between the different branches of our brand, we also used the website to work in synergy with other known brands. Both Topshop and Aldo are advertised on the website and Aldo also appears deliberately in the video behind Lexi Grace in order to really create a strong link between the two brands.

Our website contains many ways for fans to connect with the artist, for example via Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and Lexi's own News Feed. There is also a link to her Youtube channel in order to further support the music video. The artist is able to use mediums like Twitter to release news and narrowcast specifically to her fans.

Another very important way for the artist to narrowcast information specifically to her fans is through use of a mailing list. By giving fans the opportunity to become a member and sign up to receive Lexi Grace-related information, the artist has created a very effective and completely free way to market herself to her audience.

In order to create more consistency through different branches of our media product, we used the same font on both the website and the album cover. After going through many different possibilities,

We finally settled on this one. 

I believe it goes perfectly with Lexi's playful image, yet is also quite bold and easy to read. The font is also reminiscent of other artists such as Pixie Lott, therefore creating links between the two artists in the minds of the audience.

This continuity also has the effect of making anything Lexi Grace-related instantly identifiable through the font alone, thus strengthening the brand further.

The font also features on Lexi's official merchandise, thus spreading the artist identity far and wide, displayed by everyone wearing a 'Lexi Grace' T-shirt.

Like the distinctive font, Lexi Grace's swallow motif also serves as a running theme across the video, website and album cover. It appears on her jumper, on all four faces of the album cover and is part of her main logo on the website.

Lexi's distinctive fashion sense also remains consistent, as the dress she wears in the video also appears on the website.

The different sections of our website provide lots of opportunities for fans to get closer to the artist. For example, her "Lexi" page contains personal information about the artist and makes fans feel special for being 'let in' to Lexi's private life.

The competition page provides another way for fans to get closer to the artist. People are given the chance to compete with others to win free tickets to a Lexi Grace show and a chance to meet the artist herself. Competitions like this generate hype and obsession among Lexi's fanbase and make her more famous.

Lyrics are available to her hit single 'Meddle', helping fans identify with her music and sing along to the track. The video also appears next to the lyrics, encouraging fans to sing along and promoting synergy between the two platforms of website and video.

A photo gallery features on the website as more Lexi Grace material for fans to consume. Lexi is also wearing some of the outfits from the music video in the gallery, thus strengthening her fashion identity and promoting the video.

Lexi's music is promoted through the website, with a link to iTunes featured prominently on the title page. This promotes both the song, the album and the music video for the main single 'Meddle'.

Lexi's 'Fan Page' gives the audience a chance to feed back and let the artist know how they feel. This promotes a good relationship between artist and audience and makes the fans feel like their opinions are valued.

4. How did you use new media technologies in the Construction, Research, Planning and Evaluation stages?

I have been exposed to a lot of new technology on this project and have learned many new technical skills. In addition to getting to grips with entirely unfamiliar pieces of technology, I have also been able to use familiar technologies to a much higher level and explore them in greater detail.

Studio Lighting:

A major development this time round was our use of studio lighting as we did a few photo-shoots of our artist in the newly-built Seward Studio at our school.

We learned to use techniques such as 3-point lighting to great effect, employing main, back and fill lights to get the best shots of Liv we could.

We also learned how to use a portable laptop to control the lighting so we did not have to send a group member up to the lighting desk every time, and this proved a very valuable skill both for group communication and time-saving.

We experimented with different coloured lights on our photo shoots in order to create different moods...

We used a tripod and a still camera to take the shots, using the spirit level on the tripod to make sure they were all perfectly horizontal.

When making the music video itself, we used a lot of different technology at different stages of the project.

Camera:



Our most essential piece of kit was our Canon HV30 Camera. I had previously used one of these on the film project last year, however this time around we shot in HD, which proved to be very different, especially at the editing stage, as HD capturing is a lot more complicated than standard digital. HD also gave our video a professional look and added quality to our visuals. However, HD video also shows any physical imperfections in great detail, so we needed to be very careful with Liv's makeup to make sure she looked good.

Tripod:

We decided to take a lightweight tripod on the shoot to enable us to take steady, level shots if we needed to. We used it on some shots, however in order to create a fast-paced, energetic feel, we favoured hand-held camera use for the majority of the shoot. Nevertheless, the few stationary shots we have do vary the pace of the video and add some interesting contrast.

Clapperboard:

Having a clapperboard with us on the shoot proved an essential time-saving device when it came to the editing stage. Being able to instantly see the scene and take number on the thumbnail of each shot saved us hours of sifting through endless shots to find the right one and helped us be really efficient when it came to editing.

We did not have to use any sound-recording equipment, as the only audio we needed on our video was the track 'Meddle', which we synced with the video in the editing suite.

Edit Suite:

At the editing stage of our project, we used a professional PC edit suite running Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. We had used this many times before on other projects, however this project required a lot more complicated editing techniques, which we had to learn how to use (with the help of our technician, Chris). The biggest of these techniques was the speed tool we used to reverse footage.

Once we learned how to use this tool it was quite straightforward, yet time-consuming, to switch all of our shots into reverse.

Another technique which turned out to be necessary was the colour-correct tool.

A lot of outdoor shots we filmed turned out to be disappointingly lit when we captured them, so we were forced to get to grips with basic colour-correction in order to improve their tone.

In our music video, we wanted to use some impressive editing tricks to add interest. Over the course of the editing stage, we learned how to use effects such as split-screen and cross-dissolve.

Adobe Photoshop CS3:

I had used Photoshop extensively in the past, so it was not a steep learning curve for me. The creation of the album cover did not pose any major problems.

Finally, perhaps the most useful tool we used throughout our project was the internet.

Blogger:

Blogger has been integral for us at all stages of the project, helping us to organise our ideas and communicate within the group. It is our main tool for presenting our work in the project and has been easy to work with this year, as we used Blogger for our project last year too.

Wix:

A new piece of internet technology we were exposed to on the project was the website creator Wix. It was certainly a learning curve to get used to the format, however we did not have to deal with any HTML and the website was very user-friendly.

Facebook:

Facebook was an extremely useful tool we used to communicate with our audience. We used it throughout the project to advertise our screening and collect feedback on our media product. It is a very effective, completely free marketing tool.

Twitter:

Like Facebook, we used Twitter as a link between audience and institution. We were able to narrowcast information directly to fans through Lexi Grace's official page.






Youtube:

Youtube provided an easy, free platform upon which to exhibit our music video. It allowed us to distribute the video to a potentially unlimited audience and was also very useful when researching other music videos in the early stages of the project.

Google:

Google is always invaluable on any media project. Any website, image or piece of information is instantly available and it has been a vital tool for efficiency on the project.

We had to learn about a lot of new technology on this project and also had to work with previously used technology at a much deeper level.

3. What have you learnt from your Audience Feedback?

The audience feedback we have received regarding our video, website and album cover has been extremely helpful to us when evaluating the positives and negatives of our media project. It has given us a valuable insight into our work from the point of view of the target market.

Our artist Lexi Grace is aimed at two primary demographics:

1. Older teenage girls between 16-19 years old. These girls would see Lexi as an aspirational figure, similar in age to themselves. At the planning stage, we created an ideal persona for a member of this demographic:

• Very British.
• Interests: Clubbing, Shopping, Festivals, Concerts, Going out with friends.
• Music Tastes: Pixie Lott, Lily Allen, Little Boots.
• Member of the 'iPod generation'.
• Gregarious and lively.

2. Mid-teenage boys around 14-19 years old. These boys would be the right age to have an aspirational crush on the older Lexi Grace, but also to realistically want to be with her when they get a bit older.

• Traits: Loud & 'Laddish'
• Music Tastes: Indie & Pop.
• Interests: Football, Girls, Fast Food.

We were very lucky in this project as we attend a secondary school full of both target demographics and everyone of the 40 people who attended our video screening was between the ages 15-18. Therefore we were able to really focus on our target market and gets lots of valuable feedback.

We hired out one of the media screening rooms in order to stage the premiere of our video and organised a Facebook campaign in order to advertise it.

I designed a questionnaire in preparation for the screening so our audience could give feedback on the video and we could in turn learn more about our target audience's likes and dislikes.

We handed out 30 of these questionnaires to audience members and then collated our results afterwards. The feedback was generally encouraging, with a few helpful suggestions as to what we could improve.

Here is an example of a typical answer sheet.

Audience Questionnaire

Feedback:

• Everybody rated the video between 7-10/10, which is a high average.
• Every audience member identified the artist as 'Lexi Grace', so her brand identity is strong.
• 9 out of 10 audience members believed the video looked professional and could be found on music channels such as MTV.
• 9 out of 10 audience members found the video appealing, which is encouraging as it means our video successfully appeals to its target audience.
• 38 of 40 audience members would buy the single, which is encouraging as it means our track choice suits the market well.

Common Positives:

• Many audience members liked the reversed actions shots, such as the apple jumping up out of the basket and Lexi leaping up onto the postbox.

• People also like the walking shots, where Lexi moves forwards while the crowd moves back.

• Editing techniques such as speed-changing were also popular with the audience, most prominently in the lamppost shots.

• A lot of people enjoyed the coloured walls in the lip-syncing shots and the cuts between them.

• People enjoyed our use of varied and iconic London settings too, such as Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden.

Interestingly, a few audience members also picked up on our inspiration for the video. When asked "What other music videos does this remind you of?", several responded with 'The Pharcyde - Drop', the 90s hip-hop video which originally inspired us to make a reversed video. This was encouraging, as it means our music video is stylistically clear in its influences and intertextual references.

Another reversed video audience members were reminded of was 'Coldplay - The Scientist', another reversed video which also features the artist walking with the camera.



Common Negatives:

• Although people liked the coloured wall shots, they commented on the discrepancy between Lexi's skin tones and the lighting in different shots. We were aware of this at the time of shooting, yet hadn't brought any pag-lights with us to make the lighting consistent. I would definitely do this in future, as shooting outdoors inevitably brings lighting issues.

• We attempted to colour-correct these shots and make them consistent at the editing stage and made some improvement, however there was still a massive difference between shots like the ones above.

• The other main issue the audience picked up on was Liv's performance in the video. Many audience members felt she looked nervous and self-conscious in her performance. This was also something we picked up on during the project, and before the main shoot we had a coaching session with Liv to try and get her more relaxed and improve her performance. However, I feel we should have paid more attention to sorting out this problem before the main shoot, as it has had a negative effect on our video.

Feedback on Ancillary Products:

We posted our website on Facebook in order to receive some feedback, and here is what we got:

The feedback was all very positive, with people amazed at how 'realistic' and professional it looked. I would say that the website impressed our audience more than the video, as some people said our website "wasn't like a student website at all" which is a comment that has not been made about our video.

The album cover was similarly well-received, with people liking the swallow motif, the colour scheme and the way Lexi looks bemusedly at the track listing on the back cover. They also liked the contrast between bright outside covers and dark inside covers.

Main things I learned from audience feedback:

• Video generally appealed to its target audience.
• Always be prepared with lighting, especially on outdoor shoots.
• Always take the time to make sure your artist is comfortable to ensure the best possible performance.

Despite the constructive criticism, I believe our main and ancillary products were very successful on the whole and impressed our audience greatly.