Note to examiner

Dear Moderator,
Thank you for taking the time to look through my blog and reading everything that I have posted to see the progress I have made through the two years of media studies, I hope you enjoy looking at my video as much as I enjoyed making it.

Change By Piper Young

Question 4

We found that this feedback that we gained was very useful to us as it gave us confidence that our consistency and theme of the music video and the Ancillary tasks made this a better piece, the criticisms that we gained were pretty much the same through out the feedback so we decided to take action and put some more shots on the shadow of me singing so it broke it down a bit and didn't seem so boring and long winded. The positives from our audience feedback was again pretty much the same it was clear they all liked the flashing of me showing distress we did this so it was more clear that the journey that I was going through was shown throughout and nothing was too misunderstood, they also said that they liked the theme of the red lips and the black smoke this was used so that the connotations of the colours would help the audience understand what I was going through, with the red for blood, passion, anger and love. The black was used for shadows and death connotations foreshadowing what was to come if she stayed in this relationship, I found this affective and clearly it was too when the audience was watching it because they said it themselves. I think that the audience enjoyed watching it and it does suit the target audience being 16-25 women more than males due to the message in the song and the way our artist is portrayed, in to fashion and make-up etc. is more for females but it was easier for us to target those as we knew what we would like to see and based it on that.

Question 3

Question 2

Question 1

Production diary

Production diary: 31/03/15
This week I finished my second Evaluation question, I used Powtoon to present this question, this was to get it presented through as many different presentation programmes as possible, this was to make it more enjoyable for people looking through my blog.

Also we have gained feedback for the digipak and found that we need to replace a couple of pictures so we plan on taking more pictures for the digipak to see if it more compatible with the other pictures and so the theme is more understandable. 

Analysis of digipak

 This is our digipak as a whole, we have chosen the rock chic look for our artist, the black and white and red is the main colours throughout our whole 3 pieces, our website and video as well as this, these three main colours are the base of our idea throughout planning for our music video and the meaning in the lyrics and what the song is about, obviously our song focuses on being trapped in a psychological abusive relationship this is made clear through the first verse 'you so easily can make me cry'. The mood of the song is very sinister and sad so that is why we focused on these colours as they all have connotations of sinister things or sad things.

This is our front cover image, we originally took this on a app on our iPhone called 'Camwow' this allows us to mirror the object we were taking it of in all directions and how many times we wanted it to, this was the first choice that we made because we wanted it to look like i was looking back on myself, this whole concept is used throughout the video of Piper moving backwards or slowing down that we edited on the video, this was because she is delirious and is slowly becoming insane so time isn't  an element in her life any more, this is shown through this image because she is looking back on herself taking the picture, the fact she is placing her finger over her lip of the gesture of being quiet and keeping a secret is a huge foreshadow of the fact that she is keeping the massive burden of trying to be brave and happy when really she is deeply hurt and actually going insane in keeping this secret, although her make-up is done and and she has red lipstick this being the first colour that we base this whole idea on being in an abusive relationship, because the connotation of red is lust,love and also anger and blood, which all four of the emotions will of course be emerged into one massive confusion which is what we wanted to go for and i think achieved.

 This is obviously the second image in our digipak, but is the back cover of our digipak, the shading the colour black and white is again the main basis of the abusive relationship, this shows the black smoke covering her this could represent the boyfriend in her life, he is trying to cover her up however, she is trying to break free and that is why the colour is being introduced slowly and almost carefully because she is scared of what the outcome could be, the black smoke is used all over the website that we have produced and used in this digipak, we used this not only because it symbols the boyfriend and his controlling nature and the fact that there is no smoke without fire, and that kills which foreshadows what could happen if she stays with this boyfriend, but because the whole look of the artist is rock chic the black and white is a very rock colour. Although our genre is alternative pop, the fact it is alternative means that it is different and unique therefore is a sub genre through pop and that is why we have introduced the rocky look as we wanted it to be unique. The pose with the hand over the head is used to make it look like she is being controlled, just imagine being held like the string puppets and the controller is making you do all different poses and flinging you about this is why i am posed like that because the 'boyfriend' is taking control of me and it symbols how the relationship is and what happens in it.

 This is our third image in our digipak, we had to cut the rest of my face out and move the lips around and over the black smoke again, we used fireworks to do this, it was the most difficult to do as we had to make the lips bigger than they were and the fact that the teeth remained immaculate and paper white with perfect lips, this meaning we made the lips bigger on fotor, a online website that allows you to put make-up on and smooth things over and all things that makes it a Photoshop finish. After making them more plump and bigger we placed it on the black smoke and left it as that, the extreme close-up of the lips allow it to have the most intensity, having the bright red lips contrasting the black smoke creates mystery and lust as lips of course represents love lust and kissing but still has the black smoke (boyfriend) hanging over her and lurking around her because he wants to know what and where she is. Also the fact the smoke is sneaking in from the corner shows the sneaky and snidey ways that he may works and does to her.



This again black and white colouring and with the contrast of the blood red rose slowly turning black e.g. dying, symbols everything that she is going through again with the connotations of the colours that we have used throughout, the rose symbols love and lust as something you buy for someone you love and therefore is used to contrast the fact that she clearly isn't experiencing love. The fact she is biting the flower is a very aggressive action to do because she is obviously angry and destroying anything that portrays innocence and love.

This image is obviously the cd that we created ourself by repeating the black smoke on a plain cd cover by cutting and rubbing things out we got it to the right shape for the cd, in the background is the picture of me in a fur coat the black and white colouring again for the same theme again to stick to. The image in the background has been edited on the website fotor to make it look more like a Photoshop finish shot. Of course its the norm to have a background picture to the cd panel but again she is always being hidden so that the reasoning why we used a picture of me.

This is the last picture we have used and taken, the red lips are still a key feature and is used throughout the ancillary tasks and so is the smoke that is used, this has also been edited on fotor to do the smoothing affects and the make up in fact. Although the colour is being introduced again and rock chic is still very much there with the leather jacket and the makeup, this is the last image and the smoke has become lighter and clearer, resembling the boyfriend becoming easier to get rid of and the fact that it is getting clearer and is going away which shows that she is getting stronger and getting away from him, that is why there is clench fists involved to show she is getting stronger. We was inspired by Lana Del Rey as she took a similar picture with the leather jacket and strong eye makeup that is where we had the idea as she is in the same genre as us and did fit with the same look we wanted to go for.

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Updated version of our website

Here is an updated version on my artists website. We decided that having 2 lots of phone cases and 2 mugs were boring. We also got rid of the cushion as we didn't think people would buy this and also it was very over priced. We thought about items that our specific target audience would be interested in. As being two girls, this was quite easy. Our favourite things are clothes and make-up, so we assumed that the majority of girls similar to our age would feel the same. We added new items for example Fake Eyelashes and Red lipstick. Our artist wears red lipstick in the digipak, music video and website therefore we hope people will recognise this and become more tempted to buy it. We also added in some plain black knickers with 'PY' on it which is our artists initials. We thought this was a good idea as this item is essential to have therefore it would sell a lot. 

Piper's social network sites

We thought it would be suitable to make our artist a Twitter, Facebook and Instagram account. We have linked them all up to our website so that people can access them easier. The reason for doing this is because it makes the artist seem more realistic and also they can keep in touch with their fans. It is very common for artists to have social networking sites to keep their fans updated as well as using them for an advertising technique.

By using social networking, we can attract our target audience as this is something that is popular with them. It is a way for them to reach out to the artist. We can share interests and activities with them and they can feel connected. We had to make a profile consisting of her age, pictures of her and various other personal qualities. 

  Social network services are online which allows users to interact over internet. Social networks are all different but they all have the same intentions. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, pictures, post, activities events, and interests with people in their network.  

Final Draft of digipak

This is our final digipak, we have added the small print and final detail on the back cover with the bar code and the copyright sign to make it look as real and believable as possible. we found that this one was the most liked and the new pictures everyone agreed that they liked them more than the others therefore we have kept them. 

Second Draft Digipak

This is our second draft of our digipak, we are waiting for feedback on this to see if any changes are needed and if so what, however, I think that this is at a higher quality than the last one that we did. We took the last pictures today, the one with the leather jacket this was the last time we had to take pictures for this digipak, we used fotor to edit it and then word to lay it all out in the right order. 

Feedback for Draft four

This is the feedback we gained for draft four this was to see what was our strong points for the video so far and what we could improve on, this gave us some ideas and confidence for our music video as we feel like we have a long way to go however, she gave us some good feedback which built our confidence up massively.

Draft four

This is our first draft and as you can see it still needs finishing as there are missing shots but they have decreased since the 3rd draft we just have a few shots to take, mostly concept shots. We are waiting to finish this then we can get feedback and when this is finished we are can change things around and see what can make it better.

Production diary

12/03/15
This week I related the Laura Mulvey theory onto my own product and talked about how well it fits and how it doesn't fit by analysing the initial theory to my own music video, I found that yes it does fit in some aspects as the artist is feminine but also that it does challenge the theory as I made the artist stronger and have the power in the video instead of it all just being about how they look. I also did the first evaluation question and chose to present it on my account on emaze, I did this because I wanted to present things on different formats to show a wider range and noticed I only used this once on my blog so I thought I used it to present. I found out about this emaze through googling it and finding that and powtoon.

Laura Mulvey's theory- Change piper young

You could say that her theory does support our music video because piper is playing the damsel in distress in her video, this is playing on the fact that she is still wearing red lipstick which is very feminine and sexual in most men's eyes this is because a lot of women in the olden days would wear red lipstick to be seen as sexual on TV and off, also the colour represents love and passion  therefore men are going to look at this and see a feminine sexual women who needs to be saved. However piper doesn't need a man and when she walks away from it I feel like it will reach out to the women and make them feel powerful therefore allowing them to envy and want to be her for being strong enough to do that where some women cannot do that in real life. Laura says that men see them as being sexual and want to be with the girl that is portrayed as a sexual character and women are jealous and want to be her due to men fancying her, how she looks and her strong personality that she has so i do think that we support her theory although its hard to say that women will want to look and be like me as piper because she is fictional and I'm no superstar so I think maybe if this was real we could actually test it out but so far on paper it does support the theory.

Production diary

04/03/15
This week I am just focusing on planning and getting my evaluation questions done, this is the main focus this week as I want them to be perfect and consist of everything they need to. I want to make sure that me and my partner share them out and have enough detail in them to fully show why what and when about our ancillary tasks, to do them justice. I started on my plan for the 1st question so I was prepared and to know what to actually right about. I still need to do the plan for my 2nd question so I'm as prepared for it as the 1st one, I think this is a good tactic to use as when I start it I can keep looking back at it to remind me to say the right thing and to keep on track to answer the question properly.

Before and afters of the pictures from our digipak

 The progression of this one was quite easy i did it on Fotor and put a filter on it and made it look like a vintage photo.

 On this one i added a filter and smoothed out the hand and then made the lens flare go over the hand therefore exaggerating the hurt in the eyes as you can see then just added the smoke.






 This was more hard to edit as i did it on fireworks to get the black smoke at the back of the picture but then found out how to make it into the affect it is on the last one where we have added in the song list to the album and that became the back image of the Digipak.

Digipak draft 2

This is our draft for our Digipak, we were happy to call this our final one but after receiving feedback by a few people then we found that we need to change two of the pictures that we have used as they don't have the affect that the other ones do, so we are going to take pictures again and see which ones are the best for the Digipak.

Link to our website

http://massey1.wix.com/piperyoung

production diary

26/02/15
This week I was just getting myself organised, I wanted to put everything I have done together on the blog and sort out the blog with the labels so everything is easy to navigate and find on here. I also wanted to make sure I have everything I need on the blog and focus on my planning and research to get that up to scratch and make sure that it is full of everything we have ever done, I think if I never have enough research and planning then it will be okay. I will gain constructive criticisms from a peer on this area on things i may of missed and what to improve upon to make this area more strong. I will then show what my peer said to improve and show how i did that.

Key shots and inspiration for our music vidoe

Man down by Rihanna:

we chose to use this as inspiration because we had an idea to have shots of my being trapped in my bedroom as i am in an abusive relationship therefore it is a symbol of being trapped in the relationship and also the fact that he wont let me out, this is why we wanted to find the way to do this without it being boring and the shots being too long, so we looked at rihannas video and see that she also has this affect in her music video and got some ideas to how i should be sitting and how the shots would look the best. 

Digipak progression

 The progression of one of the pictures used in the digipak. We had to cut out the lips and then place it on background of the black smoke to show the two different usp of our artist.

Changes in video

Our first key change was the artist it was originally Katie but she didnt feel comfortable doing it, as she was going to be the singer and i was going to be the narrative (because there is only two of us) but then it changed to just me singing about my abusive relationship that i am in.
We then changed the concept shots as we didnt think they went with what we was trying to achieve and then we changed them again and again because we felt that the shots of me with the boyfriend looked fake and didn't fit in with the performance shots that we had now found to be a good fit.
We also changed the digipak pictures and the original website a thousand times to find our pop star image and what represents her as the artist, we didnt really know what we was going for but when we found it we liked the idea and finally agreed (red lips and black smoke).
We chnaged the singing shots about 4 times form katie to me then to me in a different location to me in the location that we are now, we looked at the video 'Man down' by rihanna and liked the idea of me being trapped in the bedroom at the start of the video through the first verse this is to show her getting stronger throughout the video by her getting out of the house and i think this shows a reliable representation of what an abusive relationship is like. the changes that we did make were for the best and i think that its good that we did trial and error a few things before finding our pop star image.

production diary

13/02/15
This week we was taking more pictures of our artist, this is the stages we went through to get it up to scratch and show the best ability of our editin, we found the website fotor which allows me to edit the picture and get rid of blemishes and smooth the face or any wrinkles it is a really good and fun tool to use to make it look as professional as possible. I'm really happy with the last finished picture.

3rd draft

Digipak plans

This is our digipak plan so far, we have planned a few pictures and are discussing what other ones to use for the last two, we knew what our cd was going to look like because we liked  the black smoke and it was going to either be the red lips or the black smoke and that is what we went with as it looked better.

Production diary

Production diary:
This week we i posted our 3rd draft, to see all the changes was amazing I fell it looks so much better and so much more improved than the 1st and 2nd draft i posted as there is more footage and less space to fill, this is showing the bits that we have got rid of for example this bit in the 2nd draft of me singing in the garage we got rid of, we pretty much got rid of a lot of the footage used here due to the fact that we didnt like it and it didn't fit so we changed it all around so what is in that space now is me singing in a different space, it looks much better now.

 However, we still have filming to do and take a few more pictures and then all we have to do is the evaluation questions, that I'm starting next week. We have finally established the artists look and the features that make Piper young a pop start, we have established her pop culture with her brand (the black smoke and the red lips) that fans should associate with her.

Weather research for filming

We plan to film most our music video outdoors therefore we will need to check the weather. This is so that we can come prepared for example coats and gloves if it is cold or maybe an umbrella if it rains.

Here is the first day that we plan to film. By using this method of looking at the weather, we can easily see the break down of roughly which time the weather will change. This weather chart shows that it will rain most of the day. This could be a problem for us as it may ruin the shots. The rain and the darkness could look really good in our footage as it would relate to the music well, but it could also not look to great.

We tried filming our footage in this weather but it didn't work. The wind kept blowing my hair in my face and this ruined the shot as you could not clearly see what I was singing. Due to this minor setback, we decided to film the shots that was going to be inside the house. 

Here is the second day that we plan to film. This weather chart shows that there will be no rain all day therefore this means that we can get most of our outside filming done on this day. It will be fairly sunny and warm but will still look effective in the music video.
We filmed the outside footage in this weather and it worked really well. There was a slight breeze which blowing my backwards. This looked nice and worked well in the shot.

pictures we took for our website and digipak

Some of these are already on the website we created, we thought we should have a significant look when people hear of Piper Young so we chose to have red lips that would be my trademark as such. 

Second draft

Production diary

Production diary:
Whilst we had been off we filmed a bit more for our  final draft and we had been editing and getting our website up to scratch, this is our opening page that we have finished, before we didn't have the pictures of me or the rose and we didnt know what the usp of our artist would be but obviously we have established the red lips and the black smoke on the background of our website so we decided to keep the font and the bigger picture of me going all the way through the website and on our digipak we are going to use the same font too.














We also started taking pictures for our digipak and set them up so they would  look like a digipak, we posted our second draft but we soon changed nearly everything about it because we just wasn't satisfied with the amount we had and how underdeveloped it looked. We show how we changed it further up on the blog.

Website so far

Front page 

Gallery

News Page

Tour dates

Store Page

Album Playlist Page

This is our website so far and what we have created from scratch, it isn't finished yet we have a few more things to add like the blog and news and more pictures on the gallery and we need to move the background picture of me more to the right as it needs to be near the edge due to the way the right hand side is very flat and finishes as a picture.