Evaluation and Feedback

Lady Gaga is known for her original videos and the creativity behind them. It was important that we stuck closely to these conventions in order to make a realistic video for Monster. We used some of the typical conventions of a Lady Gaga video with our editing of certain shots. For example the still on the left is taken from my music video. We looked at several of Lady Gaga's videos in order to gain a good understanding of what the conventions of her videos are. The still on the right is taken from her most recent video Born this way. the shot has been mirrored back on itself. This is something that we decided would be good to use in our music video, as we had a lot of extreme close up mouth shots we wanted to keep it interesting. This then also allowed us to make direct references to Lady Gaga and her music videos.

We developed and challenged the typical conventions of a pop video by changing it into black and white and making it in the style of film noir. The reason we did this was because we wanted it to show the monster element of the video. We spent a lot of time thinking about what would be the best way to approach making this video and decided that this would be the best way to do so. We also felt that as Lady Gaga is constantly challenging conventions with her fashion, music and videos we, in a way, were staying true to her conventions by trying something different. Pop music videos often use lots of bright colour, but we went the opposite way, as we felt that the music itself expresses the genre well and we were careful to use shots that would also clearly show the genre. Though the style of the promotional pack is old horror, I feel there are clear connotations of pop in there. For example the hair and make up remain the same as that you would usually expect to find in music videos and adverts from the pop music genre.

Madonna's music video for Vogue is entirely in black and white and we drew inspiration from that. The still on the left is taken from the music video Vogue. There are a lot of close up shots in this video. Madonna is an inspiration to Lady Gaga and that is why we paid close attention to a lot of Madonna videos as well. The use of close up shot and mid inter cut with long and mid shots in this video, influenced us in our shot choices for our music video.

Though Madonna's video is entirely black and white, her video is very glamorous and ours is much darker as it had a horror theme. This is the main way in which we have challenged the conventions of a typical pop video. I am pleased with the way it turned out as I feel we managed to show the horror side, but successfully combine it with the pop genre. I feel that my promotional pack works well with my finished product, the music video. I have tried to link them all together by using similar patterns colours and fonts. For example only using red and white font in all of them, changing the photograph to black and white and keeping the font the same style in each of them. I wanted it to be clear that the Digipak, the advert and the video are all part of one thing and that the digipak and advert are promoting the music video.

I did a lot of research before creating my promotional pack as I wanted it to look professional and like a genuine media product. I looked into film noir, researched Lady Gaga and looked at lots of pop artists of a similar style for example Madonna. I did this so that I could try to create a realistic portrayal of a genuine promotional pack for Lady Gaga.

I looked at some of Lady Gaga's own promotions and saw that she has tied hers together by using the same font in the same colour and also using images that are edited into the same colour. This means that as soon as you see one of her adverts or album covers you know instantly that it is Lady Gaga without even reading it. I wanted to create this effect with my promotional pack as it is important that fans and the target audience are able to instantly connect with your design. The photos on the left and right are promotions for Lady Gaga's album the fame monster. Though the photos used are quite different she has used the same simplistic background and colouring for the photo. She has also used the exact same font and colour for both. This provides and instant link and as a member of her target audience you make an instant connection. This is what I have tried to achieve with my advert and digipak.

I think it that all the different elements of my promotional pack compliment each other well and I have tried to ensure that they all link together well. I was pleased with the way the use of colour and the shadow I used on my font worked well with the photos I chose. This was something that I learnt from the feedback. It provided the effect of an old horror film which was exactly what I had been aiming for. Overall I feel that the combination of the main product and the ancillary text work effectively together. The only thing I would change would be to make the contrast effects of the photos on my digipak more like the contrast of the advert as I feel this added a darker edge and made the text really stand out

I chose to upload my digipak, advert and video onto Facebook in order to get feedback from

my target audience. The reason for this is that Facebook is a social networking site that a large preparation of her target audience use. I know this as I have researched Lady Gaga on Facebook and she has thousands of fans listed. I felt that because of this, this would be the best place to get feedback. I created a group on Facebook and uploaded my cover, inside cover and my advert. I uploaded the video onto my home page and asked people to comment. I feel that it is an accurate reflection of Lady Gaga's audience as only the people that were interested in her music chose to comment. Those that are not interested didn't leave comments as it was not something they knew about or appealed

to them.

On the left is a print screen of feedback that i received for my digipak cover.I was pleased with the feedback I received about the cover, it was all positive feedback. I feel that people understood the old horror film theme that I was aiming for. If I could change something about the cover it would be to make the red font a slightly darker shade of red so that it looks more like a blood red. I would also use the same effect on the front picture as I used on the back. Unfortunately the software I was using to create the cover wouldn't let me put the same effect on both photo, just as it would not let me remove the effect from the back cover photo.

On the right is the feedback I received from my digipak inside cover. The feedback was all very positive. People have commented on the fact that the digipak is 'Really in the style of film noir'. Which I am pleased with as i looked at films such as psycho by Alfred Hitchcock for inspiration for this video. There were also comments on how the photograph on the inside works well and provides a nice contrast to the other photos I have used. This is because 'she looks a little less Lady Gaga/Monster and a bit more 'musician' which I think works well inside'. I was pleased with this comment as I had been worried that the photo I used on the inside didn't work as well for the very reason that she looks very nonchalant.

If I could change something about this inside cover it would be to use a slightly more Gaga style photo. By this is mean to chose a more stylised photo like I have used for the advert and the front cover. Though I am pleased with the overall look of my digipack I would like to have used a less relaxed photo and used one that is slightly more posed and using eye contact. On the left is a print screen of the feedback I received for my advert. I was pleased with the feedback as it was again all very positive. A lot of people commented on the comic book likeness of the advert. 'I really like the Gothic touch to the advert- it is very much in the style of dark comic book movies like sin city or spirit.' This is what I was aiming for with the use of font and high contrast of the photo. In looking at some old horror films I realised that they often use a comic book style of presentation. For example the writing and the often the use of animation in their adverts. This is something that I wanted to try and recreate for my Lady Gaga advert and digipak. Though I have not used an animated picture I have instead chosen a font that I feel is symbolic of old horror films.

'The word placement leads your eye around the page, encouraging you to take in the ad as a whole.' I tried hard to get the correct composition so that it would attract the audiences attention, without there being so much text that they were put off. I am pleased that the composition worked in such a way as to take the viewer around the advert and get them to see it as a whole. This is what I wanted to achieve as it is important to hold the viewers attention for long enough that they take in all of the information.

One thing I would change about my advert would be to move the Q magazine quote down a bit. The reason for this is that it is bunched up quite close to 'New and exclusive'. There is a large empty pace at the bottom right, and looking back at it now I can see that it would have been better to move it down a bit and fill that space.

On the right left is a still of some feedback I got for my music video. Though it is mostly positive feedback, there is some constructive feedback in this comment also, which is really helpful. 'You can hear the camera moving, which doesn't work so well'. This is good feedback to have as we know that this is something we should have edited out instead of choosing to keep it in. If I was to re shoot or create another video I would ensure that I took into account that this is something that I should be careful to edit out.

'At the end with the dancing the fading where they look like ghosts is REALLY cool.' This is really positive feedback as we didn't know how well this would work. I was really pleased with the effect that it had, but I am glad that a member of our target audience understood the ghost like qualities that we had tried to portray by using this technique of filming and liked it.

On the right is another print screen of our feedback from our music video. These are all really positive comments. 'The close ups of the eyes and mouth are also really eye catching and synced really well with the music.' I am pleased with this comment because we wanted to re-create the Lady Gaga style by doing extreme close ups and we wanted them to be interesting and attention grabbing shots. This is why we decided to experiment with different shot types for our video. If I could change something about this video it would be to make sure that everything is timed perfectly as the smallest out of time section can still make the video look off. I would also make sure to edit out any loud off putting sounds for example the camera movement that was commented on.

Overall I think that the Facebook feedback was a success as it enabled me to accurately find out what my target audience's thoughts and feelings were on the promotional pack i created. I was pleased to find out that the majority of them seem to like it and have commented on all the things I had hoped they would pick up on, such as the horror film effect and the use of font. I feel this is valuable knowledge to posses.

Throughout this project I have learnt a lot about different software, most of which I have never used before. I have enjoyed learning how to use this software in order to create a promotional pack. I have also learnt how to use lots of new equipment, and I would now feel confident in going on and using it again.

I used photoshop to create my digipak and advert. Though I have used photoshop before I have never used it to create anything like a digipak before, so it was a new experience for me. My knowledge of photoshop isn't great, however I do feel that it was helpful as it enabled me to experiment with effects and try out different ways of editing my photos that I might not have been able to do otherwise. I did pick up some new skills whilst using photoshop to create my advert and digipak. For example I never knew how to download and edit text on photoshop before. I knew how to use the text tool provided but I had never had the opportunity or knowledge to experiment with it in any other way before. I learnt how to manipulate the font once it was downloaded in order the make it the exact size colouring for my advert and how to layer fonts on top of one another in order to create the shadow effect I have used in my digipak and advert.

Final cut pro was the other main piece of software we used. I have used Final cut once before but only briefly and had no real knowledge of how it worked. After spending a few lessons learning how it worked, we got the chance to try using it ourselves with some test footage we had taken for the teenage dirtbag video. This was a really helpful experience as it prepared me for editing my own music video. Everything about final cut was a learning experience for me as I have never properly used it before. I learnt how to create a music video. This consists of many different parts such as cropping and cutting footage putting shots together in order on the timeline so that it runs in order adding the music track and making it fit to the video. I also learnt how to edit the footage with effects and transitions so that you get the outcome you want. I never knew how to have a window of text within the footage, this is something that I learnt while using final cut. This will be very helpful next time I wish to use this software as I now know what I am doing and I feel confident in using it again.

In terms of equipment that we used I learnt how to use the camera and tripod. This was possibly the most important lesson to learn as we would not have been able to create any of the interesting shots we have if we hadn't understood how to use the camera. The tripod was helpful as it enabled us to have perfectly steady shot, this was particularly important when tilting and panning as it held the camera steady while we were able to tilt and pan the camera up and down and from side to side.

Once we had learnt how to work the camera it made it possible for us to experiment with narrow depth of field, pull focus and try out different angles and shot types. We experimented with extreme close ups with some of our eye and mouth shots, as this is something that Lady Gaga often does. We also experimented with zoom on some of the walking shots and we tried zooms into characters faces to fit with the music and found it to be very successful. Some of the night time shots enabled us to try things such as the movement trails we managed to achieve with the small handheld camera. We were pleased with the ghost like quality that we managed to get from using the smaller camera in the dark.

These are all things that would not have been possible before but once we understood the software and equipment it helped us bring our ideas together successfully and achieve a positive outcome.