Reflections of our Evaluation

Now that we have finished and I have had a chance to look back at our evaluation I am happy with the final outcome. I think we managed to get everything we needed to into our discussions even though we only had a limited amount of time due to other groups overrunning and our group having to be slotted in later, trying to finish quickly so that Mrs B's class wouldn't be on tape.

I think we all had a fair amount of discussion time in the evaluation as well and it shows that as a group we can work together and also work individually on our own as we all did our own research for the questions too. Even though now I look back I think we shouldn't have been so worried about the evaluation because once we got started it went really quickly, I'm glad we did as much preparation as we did and I think it really shows in our final piece.

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




In this answer we mention all of the equipment that we used and what we used most of it for. Holly led the discussion of this question and once we said all of the equipment we began to say how they had been useful to us and the new things that we had learnt throughout the project.

I think that this question went pretty well as we each had our own opinions and bits to say and we all learnt new stuff about the equipment throughout the project which we individually found useful.

Below is a picture of us with all of our equipment that we used.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?




Our audience feedback turned out to be really good which is what we were hoping for. The only real problem being that people didn't really completely understand the concept of the music video, but that's not too big a problem as it makes people want to watch our video again, which most people said they would when we asked them. The audience also liked our album cover and website, with the only criticism really being that the front of the album cover was maybe a little bit boring.

I think that we managed to answer this question really well with Amelia leading the question and starting the discussion and then splitting up the feedback between us by good/bad, music video, album cover and website. Splitting it up like this meant that we each managed to talk and we didn't talk over each other too much trying to get it our own opinion.

Evaluation Question 2

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



As I lead us to start with in question 1, Laura began the discussion for question 2. Therefore, although Laura led the discussion I think that I contributed well to this question and tried to help with useful inputs to help evaluate our products. In the end we agreed that we managed to combine our products together well as we used the colour scheme from the video on the album cover and the website as well. We also had links, pictures and a blog about the album cover on the website and had backstage pictures of our shoot to tie in the shoot with the website. By using the colour scheme I think this showed our band as individual and quirky which worked well for us.

To improve the combining of our products we could've, again, had a viral marketing campaign on the website as this would've brought the album cover in even more.

I think we answered this well as Laura had real album covers with her for evidence which showed good organisation and we worked through pretty much everything we wanted to say.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Part 1


Part 2


For this question, as it was the longest one, we split it up between the four of us. We gave Amelia the music video using Goodwin's to analyse it, Holly the music video with Vernalis's theory to analyse it, Laura the album cover and I did the Myspace.

When it came to the MySpace we did pretty much stick to the conventions of a band MySpace because there is not many ways in which you can change it without it confusing the audience by either not knowing how to navigate around the page or not fully knowing who the band is. A way in which we challenged the conventions slightly was by having individual bio's on the blog as this is not always something that bands have, but as we are a new band we thought this would make a nice little addition to our page and allow our fans to get to know us better. It also gave our page a personal touch which we felt made us seem more British than American.

A way in which we could've improved the MySpace was by having a link to merchandise somewhere or actual merchandise on the page apart from the album. Another thing we could've added which would've been good was a viral marketing campaign. Unfortunately though we did not have time for this which is a shame.

WE FINISHED ON TIME!!!!
and we are very happy with our finished products, just hopefully the audience will like them too!

Deadline Day

Today is the day of our production project deadline. Unfortunately we are not as far ahead as we would've liked but we are determined to finish on time and believe that we will. At the moment we are re-grading our music video with brightness and contrast, colouring in and tweaking the final bits on our album cover, and still trying to find a way to steal a banner for our MySpace.

So what's left to do is:

• Get Mrs B. to look at our music video again to check if need more grading and then screen it
• Get album cover signed off
• Either add banner onto MySpace or give up on idea
• Add the individual bio's and group bio onto blog that we have written
• Add links to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
• Add viral marketing idea if possible

So although it seems like we have loads left to do I think we will still get it all done on time.

The Vixens UK Myspace

I've started to look around for background for the MySpace and different codes we can use to jazz it up a bit. So far, I haven't found many interesting backgrounds that would really work for a band's MySpace. It would really be best if we could design our own MySpace background completely, but unfortunately none of us are complete computer/design tech genuis' so we are going to have to settle for a bit of a boring background. I am going to wait to run through everything with my group.

New Idea for Album Cover

So we tried our idea of using the locket behind the CD with pictures of us inside but after showing Mrs B. our album cover so far we agreed that it didn't look very good and it looked too plain. So I had the idea to get Holly to do a doodle with our names and little pictures and we scan that and put it behind the album cover. Everyone liked the idea and this is the doodle we ended up with which we are all really happy with.

We coloured in our names on PhotoShop after we scanned it and we think it makes it look bright and quirky and we have followed the colour scheme from the music video and the shoes by using blue, pink, purple and yellow. The cocktail glass also ties in with our album title, 'Glam Punch'.

Flatplan for Album Cover

This is our flatplan for our album cover. On the front we are thinking of having individual pictures of ourselves in columns with the band name and title of the album at the top. On the back cover we are thinking of having a still shot from our music video of the shoes with the track listing between the shoes because this is quite quirky and fun and ties in our hit single with the album. On the inside cover we are thinking of having a picture of the four of us together in the same outfits from the front, and behind the CD we are thinking of having a picture of the locket with pictures of us inside as this also ties in our hit single.

Band Member Name Ideas

Hey Guys, I have made the MySpace page, it has nothing on it at the moment except our name and one picture but the point is we do have one up and running under the URL www.Myspace.com/thevixensUK (/thevixens was already taken but bands have that problem all the time). So I've been thinking about band member names, I think it would be more interesting if we change ours. Here's a list of names that I have brianstormed so far with the help of the interenet giving some weird ones.

• Holly Woods
• Amelia Rose
• Laura (need to think of an interesting last name, sorry no offence!)
• Charlotte (same problem)
• Heidi Woods
• Amelie Rose
• Kali Rose
• Bee
• Leilah
• Gabriella
• Lexie
• Heidi
• Cali
• Romy
• Cleo
• Hattie
• Ava
• Amy/Amie
• Sammi
• Piper
• Haley
• Jayde
• Pippa
• Ria
• Izzie
• Isabel
  

That's what I've got so far, any ideas would be great :)

Video Shoot 11/11

Today we had our second and final shoot, this one for the narrative at the beginning an the end of our music video. In the narrative we are having Laura lying on a bed, she then looks at the locket and the picture inside of her and her boyfriend (the one we are singing about in the song) and she then goes to the mirror which is where we then 'go into her mind' which is the footage from the studio and us as the sins. For the end of the narrative we shot Laura falling back onto the bed looking happy and slightly more evil than when she started. Here are some behind the scenes pictures:

I think the shoot went really well as we got all the footage we needed and a bit more. The lighting also worked out well in the end which we were worried about as we had to shoot in the evening when there wouldn't be much natural lighting. However, it turned out to be a success which we are really happy about.

Plan to Shoot 11/11

We have made a plan to shoot the narrative for our music video tomorrow at Holly's house as we are using her parents bedroom for the mise-en-scene and tomorror is the only time everyone is available due to drama rehearsals and coursework deadlines going on at the moment.

We have booked out all the pag lights, camera, and a tripod. We have booked out all the lights because we will be shooting in the evening and we need to make sure that the lighting isn't too dark compared to our studio footage. In the shoot Laura will be wearing the blue dress we all wore in the studio footage and will have natural make up.

So props we need to bring are:

• Blue dress
• Heels (in case we want to use them)
• Make Up
• Hair Straightners
• Shooting Equipment

Editing our Footage

So, once we got back to school after October half term we began capturing all our footage, and there really was a lot. Once it was all captured we cut up the footage into different timelines titled:

• Laura
• Charlotte
• Amelia
• Holly
• All Sins
• All Sins with Laura
• Mannequin

In these timelines we out in all the footage that it refers to, for example all the shots with the mannequin go in the mannequin timeline and all shots of Holly, Amelia and myself dressed as sins but Laura as innocent go in 'All Sins with Laura' and so on. This has made it easier for us to find footage to put into our video. So far for our music video we have edited a bit of the video in which we are in four boxes and we all look to the side/down on the beat to 'here come the drums, here come the drums'. It sounds simple, but actually took a lot of work getting the colours right and everyone on the beat. We are now currently editing shots to the rest of the chorus and following verse, as we are waiting for the narrative to be shot before editing near the start and end of the song.

So far I am happy with our progress, it is starting to look good and we can see that our idea for the music video actually works. I am pleased with my own personal progress as I am learning to use more effects and different editing techniques.

This is a still shot we made of the idea we were going for in the 'here come the drums, here come the drums' bit.

The Shoot

Today we had our shoot and I'm really glad with how everything went, despite a few hiccups to start. Firstly, a member of our group was late so the other members attempted to start setting everything up and start with our make up. When all of our group was there we got started behind schedule and then found out the pag lights had not been charged by the previous group and one of the tall lights was not working. So, despite these problems we carried on and ended up finished not only on time but way ahead schedule and we had time to shoot lots more things than we thought we would be able to in a day.

We tried out lots of distances with the camera static and then we each shot another member of the group holding the camera to also have some camera movement. We all gave really strong and energetic performances, even near the end when everyone was beginning to get tired and our feet starting to hurt by wearing 5-inch heels and dancing around all day. But despite exhaustion and a few unforeseen problems everything ended up better then we expected. We've got absolutely loads of footage, about a tape and a half, and we can't wait to capture it and look at it, ready to start piecing together our music video!

Here are some backstage pictures of the shoot too!

AND, we even got to meet GOK WAN!!!

Video Shoot

So, tomorrow is our video shoot at Holborn Studios and I think we're all slightly nervous as well as excited. We have planned our shoot as well as we can so far, but because we are pretty sure that our video will mostly come together in the edit we only have a rough shooting schedule/shot list and storyboard.
Our shooting schedule is:
08:00-09:00   Arrive, set up, get ready (hair and make up)
09:00-09:45   Amelia Blue Dress
09:45-10:30   Holly Blue Dress
10:30-11:15   Charlotte Blue Dress
11:15-12:00   Laura Blue Dress
12:00-13:00   Laura Blue Dress with 3 Sins (Charlotte, Amelia, Holly)
13:00-13:30   LUNCH
13:30-14:30   Holly Sin
14:30-15:30   Amelia Sin
15:30-16:30   Charlotte Sin
16:30-17:30   Laura Sin
17:30-18:00   Any extra bits we want to add or anything we haven't done

And the props I need to bring are:

• Song on CD and CD Player
• "Hooker Heels" for Laura
• Blue Dress
• Accessories for Sin
• Some make up
• Lights and Camera

Audition to be Main Girl

In order to decide who is going to be the main girl we thought it would be fair to each 'audition'. For our audition we all lip-synced to the start of the song and recorded it so that it could be shown to an unbiased audience to decided who would do it. This is our auditions.

In the end, after Mrs B. had shown practically everyone she could (thanks for that Miss!) the feedback was that Laura should be the main girl so that is what we have gone with.

Call Sheet

This is the call sheet we made in preparation for our shoot.


Call Sheet

Costume Idea

Now that we have decided to go with the sin idea, we now have to re-think our outfits. I have chosen to be the sin Lust and therefore our first thought was to dress in red to anchor the idea of the sin. However, after discussion we thought it would be a good idea to make my character more of a dominatrix instead of just lust, as the concept to our music video is the corruption of good by the bad personailities and the bad personalities being in charge and dominating the man in the song as well as the innocent girl.

An outfit I would really like to base my own on is the outft that Cheryl Cole wore in her music video for her single 'Fight for this Love'. In the video she wears a red military jacket, a military hat, leather leggings and boot heels. Our idea to change the outfit is wet-look leggings, boot heels, a corset and a black blazer. Although this means that my outfit will be completely black we will try to tie-in the lust aspect with my make up by having bright red lips and red nail varnish. Almost the ambiguity of my outfit will make our video good for repeated viewing as the audience will enjoy trying to work out which sin we each are.

Costume Moodboard

This is a moodboard I made for costume ideas for our music video. As you can see, sequins, bright colours, very high heels, leggings and blazer type jackets is the type of outfits we are going for. This is because we are going for a disco-type look but with attitude to suit our genre.