A2 – Media Studies

‘The Edge of Glory’ By

‘LADY GAGA’

James Wakeling 0259

CONTENTS

Question 1

Question 3

Question 2

Question 4

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

MUSIC VIDEO

COSTUMINGWhen researching the music industry I came across the idea of costuming as being a big part of the pop music video production. This meant that if I was to create a realistic music video I would have to think a lot about the costumes that I got my artist to wear .

I looked into many different music videos and came across this combination of high fashion and the theme of the video. This was very apparent in the music videos by Lady Gaga. In her videos such as ‘Telephone’ we see this mixture of prison wear and high fashion with elements such as the‘Caution’ Tape andFashion.

When moving this into my own music video I had to look at how I could integrate it to my costumes and make it appear that my costumes could be from a real music video.

I started mood boarding ideas after finalizing my idea of using ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and thought about each character that I wanted to use and a modern day representation of the character. This was important because it makes the story, and the video, more likable for the audience and they can easily relate to it.

After sketching my ideas for each character I looked at finding the items from different costume companies and my own household. I started chronologically through the video and started developing the idea of a ‘Grungy lice’.

ALICE

This is the grungyAlice outfit that ICreated throughUsing a traditional Alice dress and Mixing it with a Leather jacket,Which is becomingIconic in Lady GagaMusic videos, and Also military bootsWhich is a highStreet fashion Trend and makesThe video moreRelatable to theGeneral popAudience, both Male and females.

COSTUMING CONTINUED

CHESIRE CATFor this I did the same thing as I did with the Alice outfit. I used conventional fancy dress with the tail and ears but mixing it with fashion by using a leotard, another iconic look of Gaga, and a fur jacket which is bang on trend for the winter season.

WHITE RABBITAs with the Cat I tackled the animal characters in the same way. By mixing conventional fancy dress, in this case the rabbit ears and tail, with a ‘Levi Strauss’ white denim jacket which is known as being a key piece within fashion and celebrity culture.

MAD HATTERWith the Mad Hatter I had the problem of the character being human however I used many modern and older clothed to create a look which shows the character but also has an essence of fashion.

CATERPILLARThe caterpillar was a harder design as it doesn't’t have any iconic fancy dress accessories. However I played on the idea of using a patterned dress which emphasis the animals shape and also the blue colour, which is the same as the Disney’s caterpillar. Also partnered it with leg warmers which is set to be the latest trend as well as mixing it with a classic Christian Dior Jacket which is loved by celebrities such as Gaga herself.

QUEEN OF HEARTSWith the Mad Hatter I had to over come making it original and still remain human. With this I mixed a lot of accessories to show wealth but also tweaked a basic black and red dress to incorporate some material with playing card symbols of. This gives the character across to the audience but still makes the character seem fashionable and a modern day version of the character.

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

MUSIC VIDEO

EDITINGIn order to create a video which represents a real video I needed to look at what made a pop music video so unique. I found many traits which I needed to utilize into my video in order for it to appear realistic.

Things I learnt was that there was multiple locations for the video which was edited together to make a quick pace experience. This has to mimic the tempo of the song but with ‘The Edge of Glory’ it requires a fast pace in order for the audience to remain engaged for the full length of the video.

Recently there has been an introduction of the importance of special effects in music videos to make it appear more of a spectacle

Rather than it just being a more plain video focusing on the artist. They now use special effects to frame the attention on the artist. I used a couple of special effects in my video such as the ‘Submerged’ effect and also the ‘Earth Zoom’ which help to make the video appear more spectacle.

Also for some symbolism in the editing I used the idea of real life being black and white, with a ‘leave colour’ effect on young Alice’s dress, nails and ribbon remaining blue, and Wonderland being colour making it seem as if we live in wonderland. To do these effects I used ‘After Effects’ which is an industry product and helps to create effects which would realistically seen in a pop music video.

To challenge conventions of real media products I had to take the next step for music video production. I found that in Lady Gaga’s music video ‘You and I’ she played two characters in the video, so naturally I felt the next step up would be for my artist to play even more roles in the video, in my case 5 other characters.

This also emphasis the idea of wonderland and it’s connection with madness. It required a lot of editing, and preparation, to fit together the scenes to make it appear the character are there together when really they were filmed at separate times.

.

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

MUSIC VIDEO

ARTISTI did a lot of casting when deciding who was going to play my lead artist, Lady Gaga, in my music video as I new she would be key to it’s success and representation of a real life, successful artist.

I came up with a list of features that I wanted the girl to have such as singing, dancing and acting ability to make sure a realistic performance came across. Physical attractiveness is also important in pop culture as there is a lot of money gained from the male gaze but also females who seek perfection.

I managed to find a perfect girl to play Gaga who looked the part and was very talented so was able to make an appealing performance on the screen.

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

MUSIC VIDEO

NARRATIVEAfter researching I found a trend of not using a linear narrative however Gaga has started to develop almost mini movies with her music videos rather than just montages of attractive images. This is now being picked up by other artists such as Rhianna.

This meant that for my video to be a true representation of real life videos I need to follow this trend and this meant that I searched for a story and theme for my video.

I decided to use ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as my story because it allowed for many takes on the story and also gave me scope to use the long song different sections and focused each section on a new character.

I decided to mix this with an episodic narrative so we get little snippets of dance and miming while we also follow the story. This continues the audience attention and makes the audience engaged with what Is happening on the screen.

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

PRINT MEDIA

My background photography is of a full shot of Gaga (My artist) against a graffiti wall which is a continuation theme of the music video and emphasis the lead artist.

I use an idea of real media cd’s by putting the tracks on the back and the title of the album on the side. This is for consumer purposes and allows the customer to see what they’re buying.

There are many industry logos which are a must, legally, and conventionally for it to be legitimate in the industry.

Such as adding a barcode so the product can be brought.

Record label industry logos.

‘Anti-Piracy’ campaign to show that the product shouldn’t be copied.

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

PRINT MEDIA

To continue conventions of real media products I continued the theme and photography into the tour poster with the tour being called ‘Wonderland Tour’ and the background photography.

In order for the dates and locations be realistic for a tour by Lady Gaga I looked at her 2010 Monster Ball Tour and copied many of the locations and routes that she took to make it appear realistic.

Social networking is key to an artists success and with artists such as Lady Gaga having over 40 Million friends on facebook means that she/we can contact a huge group of people very easily, cheaply and quickly.

I helped to make the writing more visible by continuing the graffiti feel and it helps to make it a brand rather than just tour poster.

HOME

How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?

My main product was to create a music video and the two ancillary texts were a digipak and a tour poster. These texts needs to continue the themes, style and genre of the video in order for it to be a

coherent marketing package for the album and video. When researching I found that many pop artists use the continuation of an idea to create a universal pack to advertise their product.

The theme of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is found throughout my project and this is linked to images within the video, tour poster and digipak. Such as the use of graffiti is found throughout and represents youth and also this ‘wonderland’ that I created throughout the series. The contrast of colours is also found within

the print media such as the contrast of white graffiti and the bright red text. I feel that my product is instantly recognisable as a unit and the audience can see what product is also by Lady Gaga.

I used the same costumes and locations in sections of the music video for my print media to add continuity.

HOME

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I spoke to 10 people who were of mixed sexes, ages and musical tastes.

There are many positives that I received and could continue to make another realistic product.

• “It represents pop culture and shows the key features of other videos” – This shows that my research has been correct and the conventions

I chose to use were correct.• “The actress appears to be like the original

artist” – This means that my casting was correct but also my direction on set as it effected how

she appeared on screen.• “All the products seem related to each other” –

This shows that I was successful in creating a coherent marketing package and it related back

to my music video.• “It is very modern and is pushing the

boundaries” – This shows that I have successfully challenged conventions of pop

music videos.

There are a few negatives that I received and could use to help improve my product(s).

• “The meaning of the song kind of gets lost” – This is a valid point and If I were to do it again could think of another narrative to base my

music video on.• “Some locations appear unrealistic” – This is

understandable as I was limited to inside spaces but if doing again could seek out

another location which has lighting facilities.• “There is some continuity errors in the piece. –

I did notice these and it was a result of the video being filmed over 3 months but if doing

again I would make a note of each prop/costume and how it was in the shot

before to make sure there was no continuity errors.

• “No backing dancers’ – My research showed backing dancers are popular and if I could find a suitable group of people I would use them.

HOME

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

RESEARCH AND PLANNING

BLOGIn order to show my research and planning I used the website blogger in order to create a blog. This meant that I was able to make posts for each stage of research and planning and add video and images to my posts to demonstrate my ideas beyond the written page.

This allowed me to see who and how people were viewing my product and it was interesting to see who internationally was viewing my blog.

RESEARCHFor my research I used a number of different programs. In order to create my Questionnaires I used Microsoft Word. To create the results I used Microsoft Excel and this allowed me to create visually pleasing pie charts which helped me view my results visually.

I used my Facebook account to send the Questionnaire to individuals who could make up a variety of people or a more focused audience such as my 11-25 years old Questionnaire

Youtube and online video sites turned out to be a great help to my research as it allowed me to see other videos and analysis them in order to find traits to make a realistic music video myself.

I did not only used Youtube but also ’Video Co-Pilot’ in order to find tutorials to help create special effects as I found that special effects is a modern convention of pop music videos.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

PLANNING

When planning my music video I had to storyboard my video in order to make sure that I used the full extend of the song but also that it was consistent in cuts and clips. My video contains over 80 cuts so to create a storyboard for this would have been too time consuming. So I used the program to give me the template of what I needed to film.

When I decided to use a special effect, that required other content I needed to use the internet to search for the OCR Specification to find a loop hole in the system.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

CONSTRUCTION

MUSIC VIDEOMy music video required 7 programs to create it. Each of these had a different part to play in the production of the video. The main programs I used to edit the clips together were the new Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5. The reason I used both programs was because I used a trial version of Final cut and edited together 4/5 of my video in there however I had to move it to Premiere because of my trial running out. Also I did have some problems when I exported what I had from Final Cut and resulted in me having to rebuild sections of the video in Premiere. I decided I wanted to use Final Cut Pro X because I saw a review online which raved about it’s user friendliness and I felt as an amateur editor it would be helpful to have a program which was pleasant to use.

The program allowed me to see exactly what I was working with as it rendered it while I was editing it which allowed me link the miming easily with the song. I was also able to put in markers which would let me rejig the clips back to where they were meant to be if they got out of sink which often happened because of it’s ‘magnetic’ time time. The program also offers basic time changing and meant I was able to make clips twice as fast in order to create a fast pace effect. It also had basic special effects and editing such as ‘Spotlight Lighting’ which is used to emphasis the artist when she is kneeling, and clicking, on the large deck of cards

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

CONSTRUCTION

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 I found to be less easy to use than Final Cut Pro X and it was also a a lot slower when previewing the clips and meant that editing became a lot more drawn out and a slower process than before. However I do feel that it was better in the fact that you could select what clip, out of a larger clip, easier and you could be more precise rather than on Final Cut Pro X. There was one huge advantage however with using Premiere and that was that it had the Adobe Media Encoder to export the media which resulted in a high quality export, unlike Final Cut Pro X, which failed to properly export the video and got the video became disjointed and almost stuck like a visual comic record player being stuck!

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

CONSTRUCTION

After effects was needed in my video production as I needed to create special effects in order to shoe conventions of modern pop music video production. I used the program to create the ‘Submerged’ special effect, along with Photoshop, the ‘Earth Zoom’ special effect (Both of these are from tutorials by Video Co-Pilot) and also the ‘Sin City’ effect used at the start (Tutorial from YouTube). The program was very effective, when editing more clips. It enabled me to easily import, and export, clips from QuickTime formats and meant a smooth transition between programs. I also used the new stabilizing too to stabilize footage.

In order to create the ‘Submerged’ effect I also needed to use Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 to create the linking sections of brick to create the effect that Wonderland and the real world are joined. To do this I used tools such as the clone stamp but also the new ‘Content-Aware’ fill option which is a clever new feature in CS5.5 which allows you to select a section to fill and it automatically asses what is around it in order to fill the section accordingly. In order to create the ‘Earth Zoon’ effect I also used Google Earth in order to get the aerial footage but then mixed this with after effects in order to get the spinning and cloud effect seen on the final clip. In order to get the Google Earth Footage I used ’QuickTime’ in order to record my screen.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

CONSTRUCTION

PRINT MEDIAIn the print media side of my video production I used less programs in its creation mainly Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 and Avery Dennison Corporation’s ‘CD Stomper’ software. This was a kit I had that had labels for both the disc itself but also a jewel case sections. I used Photoshop to create all my print media but then exported some of it to print onto the labels using the CD Stomper software. I also had a stomper system that affectionately seals the label to the disk

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

EVAUALTION

To create my evaluation I used Microsoft Powerpoint 2011 (for Mac). This has allowed me to use a mixture of screen shots, images and texts in order to demonstrate the process in which I have gone through in order to create my music video. I carried on the theme of my music video by using the graffiti image and this makes the evaluation part of the project and adds continuity that all the different pieces are part of the same marketing package. I have also used a series of Hyperlinks in order for the evaluation to be interacting and allow the user to make their way around the slides themselves resulting in always going back to contents page until the last slide…which you are about to see!

Thank you for using my slide show and I hope that you enjoy my products as much as I did making them. Thank You